


Mending mistakes

by Serena90



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - BDSM, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Dom/sub, Dubious Consent, M/M, Male Slash, Mpreg, Pureblood Culture, Pureblood Customs, Pureblood Society, Purebloods, Severus Snape-centric, Slash, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-14
Updated: 2016-07-13
Packaged: 2018-01-24 20:12:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 14
Words: 29,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1615622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serena90/pseuds/Serena90
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Severus Snape's potion blew up spectacularly but the outcome is not unwanted. Who wouldn't want to avoid all the mistakes they did in their childhood when their current life is so hard? But will he really make his life turn a life for the best?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

#  PROLOGUE

As a true Slytherin, Severus should have a plan for every single possible outcome. However, the situation fell far beyond his wildest calculations. How could he have possibly known that his failed potion would send him back in time to his ten-year-old self?

He had three options: he could confess to being a time traveller and end up in the Department of Mysteries as their pet experiment, he could try to figure out how to return to his time on his own or he could enjoy the second chance he had been given.

The choice wasn’t that difficult.

He would be starting Hogwarts soon and he wanted to have pleasant memories of his school years instead of having them filled with the pranks and humiliation that the Marauders forced on him. Especially now that he had been fused with his younger self, who was so excited to make friends and be happy.

So he should change what had made the other students reticent to even talk to him without disgust. Severus stared at the mirror, studying his reflection: his black hair was extremely greasy, his pale skin was dehydrated to the point it was peeling and his teeth were yellow. He was physically repulsing.

The first time around he had refused to try to improve himself out of some sort of wrapped sense of pride and he didn’t even bother to consciously try to figure out how to do it. However, now he knew it wasn’t worth it. People relied on physical appearance; it was practically imprinted into their very being thus he needed to change to be accepted.

He fingered the wand he had stolen from his mother; she wouldn’t notice its absence for she was sleeping. He knew a spell that would whiten his teeth and another that would degrease his hair. But he didn’t know how to hydrate his skin since they didn’t have enough money to dilapidate on creams. Maybe he could brew one using the herbs in the neighbourhood? He started to think about the herbs he had seen until he came up with a good combination.

He casted the spells at a low level with a bit of difficulty, unused to his magic as a child, since he knew it would be considered freakish by his father and questionable by his mother if his teeth were suddenly sparkling white and his hair silky. Plus, it would be suspicious for him to know such spells. He analysed the changes in his appearance, he was slightly less off-putting.

By the end of the year, his teeth would be completely white, his hair silky and his skin soft and healthy. It wasn’t that big of a change but it would improve his image a lot, especially because he wouldn’t come across as “dirty”.

In his childhood, he had had lots of problems caused by his appearance, not only was he poor but he was also dirty. That’s why even though Remus Lupin, who was as poor as him, had managed to make friends. His ill temper after hearing the whispered taunts had certainly not helped him in that endeavour. But this time it would be different; he would make friends and create some wonderful memories.

He left the bathroom and sneaked into his parent’s room, it was pitch dark and the muggle’s snoring was only interrupted by his occasional babbling. He tried not to make a sound because if his father caught him he would be in for a beating.

He slipped his mother’s wand under her pillow, trying not to take notice of the fact that she was naked and that he could spot more than a few bruises. His mother could take care of herself, besides it was her own fault for not abandoning his father due to pride.

She didn’t want to admit that her pureblood parents had been right about Tobias and thus condemned them both to the muggle’s ire and violence. In his last childhood, he had never resented his mother until her death had revealed that his grandparents had offered to welcome her back if she divorced the muggle and married a pureblood. They had even said they would welcome him, although he would never be a possible heir.

Eileen had foolishly refused, granted around that time Tobias wasn’t as violent as he was now. But still, he would slap her so hard she fell to the floor, punch her occasionally and take her forcibly. He had shown all signs that it would escalate and it had been obvious he would target Severus as well.

Therefore, it was logical Severus would feel bitter towards his mother. She had sentenced them both to bear the muggle’s grudge. Tobias was actually a squib, so he should probably stop calling him muggle. That was another discovery he had made after his father’s death. The man was a squib and he had lived with his Wizarding family up until he was eight years old. It was no wonder he hated his wife and child who had magic when he had been abandoned for not possessing it.

Despite how reasonable his parents’ behaviour could be seen when analysed objectively: Eileen, the pureblood daughter taught that she couldn’t fail, facing failure and Tobias, the abandoned squib, snubbed by his wife’s and child’s magic. He still hated them. They had ensured to make his childhood hell.

But they wouldn’t ruin this second childhood, he was sure of it because back then he had cared and he no longer had such a silly emotion towards his parents. He wouldn’t feel guilty for spending all his day outside, out of Tobias’ reach leaving Eileen to bear the brunt of his rage even if his younger self did feel remorseful about the turn of events.

He wouldn’t do it again like he had in the past, attracting his father’s attention so that he would stop beating his mother. As far as he was concerned, she had brought it up on herself and his reckless actions in the past hadn’t moved her enough to contact her parents to take them away. Besides, she could use magic to defend herself if she was in dire need.

He slid into his bed thinking about his future. Did he want to continue being friends with Lily? His redhead friend might be kind and clever, but she was also self-righteous and a downright hypocrite. Looking back, when he was with her, he had acted adoringly as though she was some sort of goddess and she merely talked to him because she liked the reverent way he treated her.

He still remembered how she had stopped being friends with him because of his friendships with purebloods that insulted her, and yet she had been dating the brat Potter who had made his life a living hell for six years and she knew it! It had been convenient for her to stop being friends around that time too, since she was starting to become popular and she didn’t need Snivellus to pull her down.

He decided to let her drift away and make her a mere acquaintance. There was no need for heart-breaking dramas this time around. Should he be resorted to Slytherin? Being a half-blood in Slytherin had certainly contributed generously to making his life terrible but in the end, the decision was up to the Sorting Hat. With that in mind, he was welcomed into Morpheus’ arms.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is supposed to give some context to the story: like the S/D culture. Hope you enjoy :)

The dark haired child opened the backdoor slowly, wincing when its hinges whined in protest. He quickly scurried outside of the decrepit house. He looked up to his surroundings, feeling a pang of nostalgia in his heart. It had been terribly odd being back, wandering around that area after leaving it behind. He always stayed at Hogwarts and avoided Spinner's End, not wishing to surround himself with all the memories again. Thankfully, although it felt weird being back, his fusing with young Severus eased the feeling.

He walked to the outside door and ventured out down the pebbled street, looking at the familiar and yet alien sights. The small houses all lined up, their brick façades darker than they ought to be due to the smoke from the chimneys of their own homes and the industry. The only good aspect of their house, in Severus' mind, was that it was the furthest to the industry and the closest to the vast green fields. Probably his mother's influence, she must have been horrified the first time she had seen the place or maybe she had thought herself to be incredibly adventurous.

He shook his head at his naïve thinking and turned back, heading towards the open country. The pebbled street became increasingly poorer until it became little more than a dirt path, the soil rich and the plants becoming taller and taller. He smiled as he breathed in the fresh air, he hadn’t realised how poor the air was in the house until he was farther into the fields.

The younger persona inside of him was at ease and happy. Severus spread his arms touching the tall herbs around him as he began running mindlessly. He giggled as he imagined being an airplane, trying to imitate the noises. Part of the older time traveller’s mentality wanted to scold the child for being so childish, while the larger part was pleased that he could still feel so happy with such simple things. He didn’t want his younger self to loose his innocence just because of him. His childhood had already been rough enough with his drunk of a father without him adding to the burden.

He must have been running for at least an hour before he fell in a heap onto the grass-covered floor. He was laughing carelessly as he furrowed down into his grassy bed. As he looked up into the blue sky, the younger Severus wondered what the use in staying in Spinner’s End was. Surely, with his older persona he could go away to marvellous places, away from his father and be happy?

The older Severus reeled back at the thought and he could barely restrain his thoughts from transmitting to his younger self. How could he explain that the world could be far darker than Spinner’s End to a ten year old? He shuddered as he thought of all he had seen as a Death Eater, things so dark he didn’t want his younger counterpart to ever experience. He would protect his younger self, so that he wouldn’t become embittered and dark? He wanted him to remain as he was: innocent and oddly sweet.

The younger self felt his hesitation and his fear at the outside world and didn’t inquire more. Even if he still longingly imagined a life with an amiable set of parents who would love him, an older brother who would look after him and a younger sister who would admire him… and a dog! A Dalmatian! He thought they looked truly magical, had been flabbergasted when he had seen Amy Lewis with one.

The older Severus let his younger self-daydream until he felt him becoming truly upset with such feelings of longing to have a normal life. Then, he reassured little Severus that things would get better and started to look for useful herbs for his creams. He took out a small bag he had taken from underneath the paltry and studied the plants around him, softly reminding himself what their uses were for his younger counterpart’s benefit. The child was quickly distracted as he was in awe of all the things these mundane herbs could accomplish.

Soon, he had gathered enough herbs to produce a good hydrating cream and he walked hesitantly back into the dreary and grey blocks of houses. He sneaked into Spinner’s End and found his mother still sleeping upstairs. Older Severus didn’t say anything, but he felt some disapproval of her behaviour, especially since it was the middle of the afternoon and she had a young magical child under her care.

The dark haired boy stood on a wooden chair in the kitchen, stirring the light green liquid inside his cauldron. He struggled to keep the stirring smooth. Preparing the cream was making him realise the other consequences of the fusion of both of his beings. Older Severus, being a Potions Master, had plenty of experience chopping, stirring, dusting so the motion seemed inherent and yet the small body couldn't do some of the simple motions. The pushing the spoon around against the liquid was a harder task than it seemed and soon his arms felt tired.

Luckily, he was creating a simple cream with no magical proprieties otherwise it would have been a terrible discovery in the middle of the preparations. He'd still have an advantage over his peers either way, not that he hadn't possessed it the first time around. Severus had been a prodigy, but Hogwarts had been too prejudiced to praise the ugly ill-mannered Slytherin, who on top of that was a Dark half-blood wizard.

Apparently, they could only accept two of those 'qualities', but definitely not put together. He snorted as he remembered his own Head of House, Slughorn who had ignored his talent despite it being evident, while preferring the beautiful albeit mudblood Lily. Although he had to admit that politics might have had something to do with that, Lily could be enchanting when she wanted to and she was rather pretty so presenting her as one of his 'favourites' despite being a mudblood would have helped the Potions Master with many Light wizards. Yes, it would have helped him immensely, definitely more so than genius, but rude Snivellus.

He sighed, remembering how desperately he had tried to be acknowledged: creating potions, inventing spells,... The only subjects he had been bad at had been Charms (because they were Light charms and he was better with Dark and Grey spells) and Transfiguration which he had found to be unbearably irksome, especially when Potter -Transfiguration genius- had decided to use it against him and pranked him mostly with it.

Despite his hate for them, the dark haired wizard had to admit Potter and Black were terribly talented in almost everything. Potter's mastery of Transfiguration rivalled his own grasp of Potions and Severus had the inkling that Black had a gift for the Dark Arts as most of his family did. The fool had probably refused it though, the Black Heir had been completely brainwashed by the Gryffindors about the 'Light' and 'Dark' magic explanation as well as all that talk about muggle-borns being equals.

Honestly, sometimes the Wizarding population was full of fools. It was proved and recorded several times that muggle-borns didn't have as much magic compared to others. They had also begun to corrupt the ideals of their culture with muggle fears, while posing grave risk to the security of the Wizarding World.

Before accepting muggle-borns in their folds, the Wizarding World understood that Light and Dark magic was an affinity of your magic dictated by your blood. There was no such thing as Dark equals evil and Light equals gallant knight. It was true that Light wizards couldn't control Dark magic and were usually harmed by it, but Dark wizards weren't particularly strong at Light magic either and it weakened their instinctual link to their magic core.

Now, Severus didn't believe in the rampant killing he had witnessed with Voldemort, but he did believe in indoctrinating the muggle-borns far way sooner so they wouldn't be outsiders, but part of the Wizarding World. Of course, after hearing endless tales about blood-sucking vampires during their childhood, the muggle-borns would associate those images even if only subconsciously after joining their world.

Plus, it would help them understand the culture of submissives and dominants. Most of them found it difficult to comprehend that magical creatures didn't reproduce female-male, witches and wizards, but submissive-dominant, regardless of their gender. They experienced a great culture shock when they saw partners of the same gender or when they realised that male submissives could get pregnant even if their dominant was a woman. Of course, they found it odder because people with no amount or next to no amount of pure blood didn't go through the changes that shaped a magical creature into a dominant or submissive. Instead, they reproduced female-male relationships.

So a muggle-born wouldn't turn into a submissive, a dominant or a neutral (who could be a dominant or a submissive) but if they mingled with another muggle-born and their offspring had a child with another second-generation wizard, the child would become a dominant, a submissive or a neutral. This child would be considered new blood instead of being a mudblood.

As for half bloods it depended on how pure the blood of their pureblood parent was. For instance, a wizard resulted from a pureblood and a muggle usually didn't transform, but if the blood of the pureblood parent hadn't mixed before with muggle blood and was powerful, the child would turn like the Dark Lord. Purebloods from powerful lines tended to suffer from inbreeding, since the Wizarding Britain was a rather closed society. Usually, magic would solve any problems inbreeding might carry. However, inbreeding in such an extent weakened the magic, since most of the family magic would be destined to healing the defects of inbreeding.

The child of a pureblood and a muggle-born could go either way, if the pureblood were weak magically the child wouldn't transform, but if the magic were strong like in the Potter line, the child would definitely become a dominant, a submissive or a neutral.

He, himself, was supposed to be able to transform since the Prince line hadn't had an influx of muggle blood in eight generations and it had been a muggle-born. It hadn't been a sure bet, but now that Severus knew his father wasn't a muggle but a squib, then it was definite yes that he would turn. He wondered what he would become in this lifetime. The blooming relied a lot on the wizard's personality and Severus knew he had changed.

The kitchen door flung open and Severus stiffened when he heard his father's sound steps. He wasn't supposed to be back so soon, the Slytherin had chosen this time to make the potion because his father would be drinking at the pub and his mother would be upstairs going through her old things nostalgically. His younger self fretted while his older and more experienced counterpart tried to calm him down. He glanced at his father, trying to assuage his mood and whether he was going to become violent after witnessing his son making potions.

His father passed past him to the cupboard, grabbing some salty biscuits and only giving him a grunt of acknowledgement before leaving the room again. His expression hadn’t changed in the slightest at seeing the fuming cauldron on the stove. The dark-haired child frowned, his father hadn't said a word about the cauldron and it had been very obvious it had been for a potion. With a start, he realised that his father being a squib found many things 'normal' that he wouldn't had had he been a true muggle.

He sighed how could his mother have missed that? How could he have missed that in his last life? Sometimes, he had found some things weird like how his father celebrated Samhain instead of Halloween or Yule in the place of Christmas, but he had always waved it off as his mother's influence, a weak explanation since his mother had little influence on his father but still...

Of course, his mother was a pureblood who wasn't really an adept in muggle culture so she couldn't identify what was odd in his father's behaviour. He had been raised in muggle culture for so long that he accepted certain things like normal until he grew up and started questioning things, but even then he had given himself feeble excuses.

It was weird how he could be so observant and draw amazing conclusions in dire situations like Voldemort's Inner Circle when he was so clumsy with his own personal affairs. He was good with the Death Eater politics because as the Potions Master, he personally wasn't part of the actual circle. He stood aside, firm in his position as the Potions Master and spy.

His potential as a spy had surprised even he, since he had been terrible with Slytherin politics when he was at Hogwarts. He simply didn't understand other human beings in relation to him since they were too complex in his mind. Socialization was a chore for him; he would happily spend his days in the dungeons with his potions. Thankfully, Voldemort motivations were not that difficult to comprehend: he was insane; so he wanted to own the world, make it burn if he wished as he gloated over his enemies.

The cream was ready.

Severus smiled as he took the biggest pot he could find. He had wanted to make more cream, but since there wasn't a bigger pot and he wouldn't be able to store it, the dark-haired wizard had simply produced enough to fill it. He poured the content's of the cauldron carefully into the jar, filling it to the brink.

He was done!

%MCEPASTEBIN%


	3. Chapter 3

Severus was in his bedroom, looking at the gloomy day outside. It was raining cats and dogs and he pouted thinking how muddy the fields would be tomorrow. He was trapped inside until the rain stopped and he hoped that his father spent his afternoon in the bar. Otherwise, he would certainly punish his mother today for not cleaning the house “properly”.

He looked around. The wooden floors were dirty and a thin layer of dust laid on almost all the surfaces of the living room. His mother was a privileged pureblood heiress, so she didn’t know how to clean effectively a house. Instead, she knew how to order a small army of house elves to keep a mansion in order.

He winced as he remembered Hogwarts. When he had arrived to the school, he had marvelled at how _clean_ everything was. It had been even more astounding to realise that for the pureblood heirs, Hogwarts wasn't actually that clean. Wealthy purebloods were used to contingents of house elves keeping every surface sparkling. They were used to dropping their clothes on the floor carelessly, knowing their personal house-elf would levitate it before it touched the floor. It was no wonder his mother was flummoxed at what to do with their dirty little house.

He stood up and went to get a duster to start cleaning. His father was going to be displeased, but maybe he would be happy when he came to a clean house, right? He didn’t want his dad to hit his mum again, thought the child inside Severus. The older Severus encouraged his younger self warmly. He didn't believe this would improve his father's mood, but he wanted Severus to grow in a more hygienic environment and to realise that the state of the house wasn't actually normal. He also wanted to have young Severus entertained while he did some Occlumency.

The separation between both personas was becoming thinner and it was something that worried the time traveller, he didn’t want to disappear; yet, he didn’t want ten year old Severus to disappear either. It seemed to be more of a fusion, but he didn’t want his memories to poison his younger self’s mentality either. Although he used Occlumency to shield his younger self, in the end he knew that he would not have another choice than to destroy the memories and choose only the ones he thought were appropriate for a ten year old.

As his younger self focused on the mechanic act of cleaning, Severus classified his memories. A part of him wanted to systematically whip out his Death Eater memories, but he had gained a lot of knowledge from some of them. He had met a lot of purebloods and learnt a lot of pureblood customs, not to mention potions and spells. He also thought he should leave some sort of warning so that in the future he would be able to distinguish the mentally ill participants of _both_ sides.

He had made a lot of mistakes in his life and he didn’t want to repeat them. After all, wasn’t this the point of travelling through time? To erase his mistakes from history? It would be a difficult job to classify at least 40 years of memories. He would have to choose what would remain as pure knowledge or as a warning and what would be destroyed to prevent the loss of innocence of his younger self.

When the night fell and his father returned home, somewhat sober for a change, the living room was as clean as it could possibly be. Tobias Snape stared at the room stunned; he didn’t think his wife was capable of such a feat. Then, he saw his small son, curled into the mouldy sofa. He approached him slowly, his small body was curled around a duster and the skin of his hands was tender and red from all his hard work.

In an unusual act of kindness, he brushed his son’s black long hair out of his face. When he saw his child, he was almost always filled with rage at his betrayal for having magic when he didn’t. Now, the familiar features of his face reminded him that he might be a wizard, but he was _still_ his son.

Tobias Snape was a man filled of rage and hurt. He was an orphan, had lived in an orphanage until he was sixteen and sent on his merry way. He had fought for everything he had with the will to survive only to meet a young woman eleven years later. He had not known why, but he had felt an instant connection towards the snobby woman who thought drinking beer in a bar was an adventure. They hadn’t had anything in common. The woman was a rich heiress; he was a dirty poor orphan. It wasn’t until much later he had discovered Eileen was actually a witch.

It had been exciting at the beginning. He had welcomed this new world with spread arms. But the more he learnt, the more he felt a nagging feeling in his heart, especially when he saw the prejudices and intolerance towards muggles. He batted it away, but everything had come tumbling like a house of cards. It had been a simple comment that had made the penny drop:

_“Those poor squibs,” his wife had muttered, recently disinherited as she watched two poorly dressed men walking down Diagon Alley, their heads down in shame._

_“What are squibs?” He had asked curiously._

_“Muggles born of wizards. They are considered the worst curse of a pureblood line.”_

He had understood, then. And since that day, hurt and anger had been kept under lock and key inside of him. But nothing was a better key than alcohol and he always wanted to forget. He knew he wasn't a nice person when drunk. He had seen the bruises on his wife's skin and the fear in his child's eyes, but he needed to forget. He sighed as he picked his son and climbed the stairs, to tuck his Severus in bed. When was the last time he had done so?

The next morning, Severus had woken up in his bed, much to his befuddlement. With a start, he realised his father had brought him upstairs and tucked him in. The younger self felt a wave of warmth at the loving gesture while the older counterpart wondered what that could mean.

It was a tender gesture, a gesture that in his old world hadn’t happened. But he hadn’t done anything to interfere with Tobias’ life, had he? So why would he change? Although, he shouldn’t keep his hopes up, one gesture wasn’t a definite change in character. Soon enough, his father would get roaring drunk in the bar and become the violent drunk he knew. He just hoped his younger counterpart wouldn’t be too hurt when that happened.

He got off the bed, grimacing when his bare feet reached the cold floor and padded towards the bathroom. He studied his image in the mirror. Although the poor lightening and the dirty mirror didn’t do him any favours, he thought he could detect a small improvement.

The major change was his teeth: they weren’t as off-putting as before. He was surprised at the change in impressions a lighter shade could do. He touched his skin, it was still dry and rather unhealthy looking, but it wasn’t peeling off like he had the leper anymore. His hair looked rather disgusting, so greasy and dirty. The polluted air in the area probably worsened its disposition. He would have to put a little bit more of power into the cleaning spell.

He sneaked into his mother’s bedroom as she had gone to the market so he took her wand out of its hiding place underneath a loose floorboard. He went to the bathroom and started working on the spells. He was getting much better in performing the spells. The tricky part had been connecting his underdeveloped magic core to the unsuited wand and he had become much better.

He hummed as he performed the spells to his satisfaction. Although, he only performed two spells so it wasn’t that much of a leap. Maybe he could… try to do other spells? Simple house-keeping spells. His older self restrained a sigh at seeing his younger counterpart’s excitement at the idea, he knew the young boy only wanted to please his father and that was the reason behind his sudden idea.

It was still a good idea, though. Some house-keeping spells and charms were rather simple and unlikely to produce any disaster, so he wouldn’t set the house on fire with them, which was a bonus. Plus, he did need the practice and it would strengthen his magical core. He supposed the possibility of reducing the amount of one-sided fights was also an incentive. Although, he still thought that a drunk Tobias would still look for an excuse to batter his mother. After all, abusers weren’t known for their rationale.

He left the bathroom, twirling the wand absentmindedly in his hand. What cleaning spells would be useful and harmless? He hadn’t used these types of spells at all; after all, living in Hogwarts came with house-elves who would be horrified at him decreasing their amount of work. The only spells he had used on a day-to-day basis were cleaning spells for his clothes and shoes when he had spilt something.

He had also done temperature charms! Maybe the house wouldn’t be so cold anymore! This thought excited his younger self, who was always cold in November, December and January. But older Severus refuted the idea, feeling guilty. His young body wouldn’t be able to maintain this sort of charms for long and, even if he could, his mother would notice the magic.

He furrowed his brows, deep in thought. Before living at Hogwarts, he had been living on his own and he had used cleaning spells. He huffed in frustration trying to remember the spells he used to perform. It had been over twenty years ago and it had been a short period of his life, only two years. And as Severus wasn’t much put off by a dirty environment after being raised in Spinner’s End, he hadn’t used them habitually.

He had used one to remove the dust, another for cleaning wooden floors and another to clean tiles, which he used in the bathroom and in the kitchen. He brightened: _Tergeo_ for the dust and _Scourgify_ for tiles. His thin black eyebrow twitched with annoyance when he remembered James Potter using Scourgify for his mouth in punishment for calling Lily a mudblood.

But, at the time she had deserved it. He had only said it because he had lost control in his humiliation, but he had been thinking it for a while. In their discussions, Lily had started to make comments about how “barbaric” and “backwards” the Wizarding World was. It had been very insulting even to Severus, who hadn’t actually been raised in the Wizarding World. The Wizarding World had advanced a lot; it just hadn’t gone the same direction as the Muggle World, which was normal because their societies were different.

He walked to the kitchen and left the wand on the table before pronouncing slowly ‘Scourgify’, making sure to elongate his pronunciation so that it sounded right to his ears. After several tries as his vocals weren’t used to Latin pronunciation yet and even though he had some muscle memory on how to pronounce such words, it still felt weird on the ten-year-old boy’s mouth. Then, he took the wand off the table and practised the wand movements. His arms felt stiff and not as flexible as before.

Since he had the body of a child, it was easier to force his magic through the wand by making exaggerated wand movements and loudly pronouncing the spell. When he finally casted it, he was happy to see that a quarter of the floor of the kitchen was clean. It wasn’t sparkling, but it was _clean_. Hogwarts level clean, even if not pureblood manor clean.

He casted the charm five more times to completely clean the floor and two times to clean the cupboards, which weren’t wooden. After that, he felt exhausted. His magic core was getting some practice from the spells for his hair and teeth, but he hadn’t ever used that much magic before.

He rushed off to hide his mother’s wand again and went to bed to lay down for awhile. He suspected that he would be slightly more powerful than before if he continued to exercise his magical core so much. It was tiring now to produce all those spells, but he was exercising his magical core earlier than before and it meant it would grow more. That was another reason purebloods were usually more powerful than muggleborns, their magic cores were more developed.

A magical core was like the brain, some people were naturally more intelligent than others in different areas, but if they didn’t exercise their brain, they didn’t get better and sometimes even lost their abilities. It was like if a child was naturally gifted in mathematics, but didn’t do his homework ever, so his brain wouldn’t be used to doing mathematics when he had to and would make more mistakes compared to his peers.

Purebloods exercised their magic cores from when they were rather young. Most of them didn’t even use wands, they did wandless small spells, like changing a toys colours or summoning a toy. It wasn’t accidental magic, as they knew what they wanted and how to make it work. It was one of the reasons purebloods’ had an increased sensitivity to magic, a bigger magical core and more instinctual grasp of magic. Severus had already been pretty powerful in his past life; he wondered how his core would develop with the extra exercise.


	4. Chapter 4

Severus pouted as he laid down on the green grass. It was slightly damp and it tickled his bare arms. Summer was coming to an end and in a week he’d start Muggle school again. He didn’t want to spend hours sitting down, surrounded by muggle children to learn things he already knew. If it had been boring when it was all “new”, now that he knew what to do, it would be pure torture.

He would also see Lily again.

He sighed.

This summer he had mostly played in the green fields by himself instead of going to the park she frequented or to the creek. He wondered whether she’d be mad. And this time he hadn’t told her she was a witch, since he hadn’t seen her doing magic. They hadn't really formed a connection before then. He had always been too aware that he was the weird dirty kid in class.

He wouldn't say anything to Lily this time. Maybe Lily and Petunia’s relationship wouldn’t be so strained as last time he had basically told Petunia she wasn’t worth anything if she wasn’t a witch. He pondered on it for a few minutes before deciding that Petunia was a jealous git in any time and she _would_ be jealous, it would just take longer around for her animosity to reach that level.

Petunia had abused her nephew since he was practically a baby. A person could be jealous and bitter but, even he, who had been abused himself and had been a Death Eater had never abused a child. OH, he had tormented them fulfilling the role of terrible Head of Slytherin, but he had never hit a child or made them live in a cupboard or denied them food.

A spike of anger rouse in him when he remembered Dumbledore telling him offhandedly how Harry was growing “just like James” and how his family amusedly tolerated his “mischievousness”. Dumbledore had poisoned him towards an abused child. All the blame couldn’t go to the old fool, of course, since he _should_ have been able to distinguish the signs himself and not be blinded by prejudices. But after hearing for ten years how Harry was just like James, it had taken him awhile to realise his mistake and by then it was too late.

He hadn’t accepted the truth until he had seen it from Harry’s own memories. The boy had been fifteen years old and already hated him with a passion. He wouldn’t have believed that Severus would want to protect him, especially after seeing him with Black and Lupin, once more bringing back all of those past memories of torment that he suffered by their hands. By that time, even if he had wanted too, he couldn’t change his attitude towards him since the Dark Lord was powerful and alive once more.

He had confronted Dumbledore.

Although, maybe “confront” was too strong of a word. He had subtly let the leader of the Light know what he had seen in his memories. He had been hoping Petunia had somehow managed to pass the abuse by the old wizard, even though he knew how ridiculous the notion was. But he had wanted to believe that at least his second master wasn’t that twisted, that he wouldn’t allow a child to be outrageously abused.

He didn’t know why he had thought that. He was talking about the same person who had known he was abused, who had known he was bullied and publically humiliated and had done nothing. When he had been almost killed by Black’s plot, it had been _he_ who had been threatened by expulsion, not Black or Lupin.

He had reflected on that for many years. At first, he had thought only the pro-Gryffindor politics of the Headmaster had been at play, yet later he had realised Dumbledore had wanted him to join the Death Eaters and had already planned on using James’ life debt against him to make him a spy.

He also realised that had the old wizard retaliated against Black, the House of Black would have been involved. Black’s family found him too Gryffindor and pro-muggle and had casted him away because of that. However, learning that their Heir had almost killed a half-blood by throwing him to a werewolf and had only been found out because James Potter had stopped the plan would most likely gain their approval and force their Heir back to their family.

The Blacks were vicious and they would most certainly approve. They would realise that even if Black was a Gryffindor that didn’t mean he was soft or less Black for it. He was still ruthless and he still priced family above all others.

The Blacks thought Sirius was a traitor to their blood, but they didn’t realise everything Sirius did was for those in his family he priced above all others. He only cared for Andromeda Black and James Potter, both of whom were his favourite cousins. Sirius Black didn’t care about anyone else but them, the world could burn as long as those two were alright.

He had only come involved with the cause because both Andromeda and James had loved muggleborns. Blacks loved deeply, they only had one “love of their life”, they were their one and only. James had courted Lily for seven years, his gaze never straying despite his numerous conquests on more appropriate and beautiful submissives.

Bellatrix had wanted the Lestrange submissive and switch so much, she had been willing to abandon her own surname of which she was so extremely proud of, all for them. He blinked, surprised at his own memories of the passionate and romantic courting. It was hard to relate the clever, powerful Bellatrix Black of his memories to the crazy, insane Bellatrix Lestrange. She had always been vicious and powerful, and maybe not entirely sane but the Dark Lord and Azkaban had done a lot of damage to her.

Andromeda Black had faced disinheritance from the Blacks just to be with muggleborn Tonks. She had maintained her position even when her family had sent assassins against her and her new husband to regain the family honour. She had simply dispatched the killers with the efficiency of a trained Black and had gone back to sleep in her husband’s bed.

No, Black might’ve fooled a lot of people. But Severus knew what he was, and he was a Black through and through. He was still vicious and ruthless towards anyone, but his family. He was still willing to die and kill for his family without a second thought to his safety. He still was a terrible enemy to have.

He shuddered, thinking of the werewolf snarling face pouncing on him. He could still hear the threatening growls, the paws advancing towards him. This time, he wouldn’t make himself the enemy of both Black or Potter. When had their animosity even started? They had met on the train, but he didn’t think he had warranted that level of hatred.

He had immediately noticed their rich robes and snobby behaviour and he had reacted defensively, especially when they had commented he looked like a dark wizard out of a muggle’s tale. Their so subtle way of telling him he was hideous. He had then decided that the best defence was a good offense.

It had been a great mistake.

Black and Potter had tormented a lot of people, but apparently no one fought back as fiercely as him. And that had made him interesting to them. And it had also made him their favourite target for hexes and curses and “pranks”. They had enjoyed humiliating him and his resistance only made him a more attractive target.

It certainly didn’t help that he was friends with Lily while the girl ignored James. In fact, he was sure that if he hadn’t been friends with the redheaded witch, Potter would have tried to rein in Sirius more. Black, like all Blacks, tended to get carried away, it was usually Potter the one who held him back. Lupin, even when he was a prefect, had always been too much of a coward for that.

He shook his black head. He didn’t need to worry about that yet. He should focus on the bullies he knew that would go to school with him, right next week. He grimaced.

In muggle school.

The other students didn’t really target him like Potter and Black had done, but they isolated him and made fun of him all the time. At least, they wouldn’t be able to make as much fun of his looks as they did before. After a couple of months using the spell, his teeth still weren’t white yet they weren’t the monstrosity they used to be and his hair didn’t look as dirty as before and his skin didn’t look like leper anymore. That had to count for something, right?

It wasn’t like in his public muggle school people held the high standards of purebloods, so now he wouldn’t look that much out of place. He smiled, it wasn’t like he wanted to make friends with muggles, especially when he would only live amongst them for another year and then would only see them occasionally in the summers.

Soon, he would enter the Wizarding World again. He couldn’t wait! This time he would make friends, his younger self thought determinately. He would make the sort of friends that were for life. Being surrounded by magic again would be such a wonderful experience! He had a lot of bad memories in Hogwarts from the bullying and from his teaching career, but his younger self was bent on creating amazing new memories there.

He pouted adorably; he would miss summer. This had been the best summer of his life. He felt free and safe with his older self-tucked in the back of his mind, teaching him and caring for him. He had spent most of his time playing outside and getting to practice more magic. And his little plan to stop his father from being in such a bad mood cleaning the house had worked! And his mother seemed more comfortable around the house; the pureblood heiress in her had probably despaired in the extremely subpar environment.

His magic was also getting better, he had gotten the hang of the cleaning spells and he didn’t tire as easily. His magic core was getting a work out! He giggled at the silly thought. He knew his older counterpart worried about the barrier separating them becoming thinner and thinner, but he wanted to be one with older Severus. He liked older Severus, he was patient and he protected him and taught him a lot of new incredible stuff and he looked after him. No one had really looked after him before.

He rolled over his stomach looking at the green grass without care since he knew how to clean the grass stains. He didn’t go around in dirty clothes anymore. With muggle school he wouldn’t be able to play as much, because when school let out it was already dark and he wouldn’t be able to practice his magic as much. And the house wouldn’t be as clean, what if his dad got more violent again and his mum sadder?

He wouldn’t let that happen, he thought determined. He would be able to manage. He’d keep cleaning the house even if he ended up having to do it without magic.

The older counterpart sighed.

He didn’t want his younger self to become disillusioned when his father became violent again. However, he had to admit he was surprised by the lack of violence this summer. Last time around, his father had already given him a mighty beating that he had been in bed for two days unable to move even with the healing spells had cast on him.

This time around his father hadn’t touched him, had even tucked him into bed. He also seemed to have developed a dislike for “disciplining” his mother in front of him. So his mother had not been beaten as much as in his other lifetime. He wondered what had provoked the change. He doubted it was just a clean house that changed his father’s development.

He didn’t think the violence would stop anytime soon, although maybe it wouldn’t escalate as quickly as last time. Looking back, his father’s temper had been more on edge the closer it was for Severus to leave for Hogwarts. However, this time something seemed to have appeased him…

Maybe it was because this time Severus wasn’t confronting him, trying to stop him from beating his mother, instead he was trying to please him to get such results. Maybe this posture made him feel more respected and comfortable, so he didn’t feel the need to reaffirm his authority in the house. And that resulted in less violence.

He just hoped that when Hogwarts’ letter came, his father wouldn’t decide to hurt his younger self as punishment. Still, he would soon escape to Hogwarts and would only interact with Tobias in the summers. But… what about Eileen? He had wanted to distance himself from his mother, even though he couldn’t bear the thought of just leaving his _mother_ to be beaten. He still loved her and his tries to disconnect that emotion hadn’t worked. It was easy to resent a person when they were dead but having them breathing and alive…

He couldn’t leave her to Tobias. Nonetheless, it seemed like the pattern of striving to please his father to avoid his anger was working. He should probably keep doing that. He couldn’t think of anything else he could do. If he tried to call his mother’s parents, her mother would just deny everything and then Tobias’ punishment would worsen. He also didn't think he could convince his mother to call her parents, Eileen hadn't been willing to do that in his past life when she and her son were beaten constantly.

The dark-haired child sighed resignedly as he saw the sky darken. He stood up from the green grass. He should probably head back home and start preparing his schoolbag for tomorrow. He frowned as he looked to the grey area that was the village, as he walked towards it and abandoned the green pastures he felt his unease increase within him. He felt like he was leaving all the freedom and happiness he had discovered this summer behind. Severus hoped his fears were unwarranted.


	5. Chapter 5

The entrance of his muggle school was littered with children and their mothers. Since he had come back, he hadn’t really interacted with other people outside of his parents. So it was weird to see everyone dressing in such an out-dated fashion to him. For him, it looked like an image out of a picture. It was frankly surreal. At least in Hogwarts it wouldn’t be so weird, purebloods tended to wear traditional clothes, which didn’t change that much. The change in styles was subtler than in the muggle world.

The level of noise rose the closer he came to the school. After spending his entire summer in the quiet fields of green, far from the industry, the noise was particularly overwhelming. His ears ringed from the screaming. Severus winced as he walked past a little brat who wouldn’t stop screeching to his mother about how he didn’t want to go to school. He quickly climbed the steps of the stairs and went inside the school.

Entering his old class, he definitely had a rush of _déjà vu_. The classroom was exactly the same: the greyish red bricks, old school tables and chairs, the dirty blackboard and the even dirtier windows. Less than half the class was there, the other students, children he had known since he was a child, turned to stare at him. Merlin, it was such a surrealistic experience. He hadn’t seen these people since he was eleven years old and yet it was so weird. How would he fare at Hogwarts? Well, by then, he and his younger self would be fused so hopefully it wouldn’t be as weird.

He looked at his class; they were already divided into their groups of friends. The cute girls whose family was more well-off played with dolls in the front of the class, giggling and talking about their summer. Two of the sportive boys were passing a ball back and forth, if Severus remembered well one of them would break one of the windows before the term finished. And a group of boys were laying on their stomach playing with small soldiers toys.

Thankfully, they paid him no mind after seeing him. It seemed his change in appearance made him less of a target. He had checked this morning: his teeth weren't yellow any more (even if not particularly white), his skin wasn't unhealthily dry and his hair, while still greasy, was like most of the class' since the fumes of the village tended to damage their hair. Severus smiled as he put down his things on his desk; at least this year hadn’t started with a nasty insult for him. The rest of the class entered one after another, greeting their friends loudly and laughing, making sure the desks they took were close to each other.

The day passed in a blur for Severus, it was extremely boring and he soon started daydreaming in class. It was a mixed blessing the fact that the teachers’ vocation for teaching had died long before Severus graced the walls of the school; not a single one of them said or asked anything to Severus.

On the other hand, despite his boredom, no one had made a single comment about his hair or his second-hand clothes. And that was a great improvement, while in his other life his muggle classmates hadn’t gone out of their way to make his life uncomfortable, they had still whispered nasty insults to him. He had always been uncomfortably aware that he was the strange one, the outcast.

The lack of animosity from his schoolmates put Severus in a good mood, to the point he was actually humming some old song as he walked back home. It was half an hour’s walk if he cut through the bright green fields instead of following the trail, as his school was in the next village over. He had left quickly so he didn’t have to go with Lily and Petunia and her horrible friends back to the village.

It wasn’t like Lily had been annoyed or had acted out of the ordinary in class or break. She had most certainly not missed him over the summer, even though he hadn’t talked to her for most of it. But he didn’t want to have to bear the sneers of Petunia.

And a pang of hurt rose every time he realised Lily hadn’t even missed him. Most of his adult life had been dedicated to apologize for causing Lily’s death, due to the terrible vow Dumbledore extracted. To realise that the epic childhood friendship Severus had created in his head didn’t actually exist was quietly devastating. He had sacrificed so much of his life for Lily. To realise that they had become closer friends because the Houses prohibited it was startling and discouraging. But this was his second chance and Severus wouldn’t put his life on hold for Lily in this one.

He entered from the front door and bellowed, “Mum! I’m home”, as he took off his sweater and left it in the  wooden wardrobe with his bag.

“Hi, Severus, in the kitchen”, called Eileen.

The black-haired boy smiled, excited, if his mother was in the kitchen at this hour it meant she was doing potions. His younger self almost jumped in glee, he loved seeing his mother make potions. She would explain to him what she was doing, what ingredients were used and for what, why she used certain times... everything! It had been how Severus had become such a prodigy in potions, he didn't only know what to do: he knew _why_ he had to do it.

In all his childhood memories, his mother wasn't particularly confident. However, making potions was where he could see his mother in her element, confident and proud of her ancestry. It was also the time when she spoke the most. She was usually rather quiet and barely acknowledged him now that he was older. His older self muffled a snort at the ten year old considering himself “old”.

He trotted to the kitchen and was taken a back by the wave of heat he encountered as soon as he entered the room. He blinked a couple of times to disperse the tears at the sudden change in temperature and found his mother wearing an apron, her back was straight and her black eyes were focused on the potion. Severus stared at her in wonder; her mere stance was very different from the way she usually stood. She stood tall and proud, her usually dull black eyes were focused and sharp and her face reflected a deep purpose. Eileen Prince had never been a particularly beautiful witch, but with the confidence that making potions gave her, it certainly made her look more pretty.

The bronze cauldron on the fire was enormous and its contents were bubbling a bright purple, on the table there were several ingredients. There were several empty flasks to be filled with the potion. The dark-haired child looked at the ingredients, wondering what his mother could be making. The Potions Master smelled the essence of armortia and there were clabbert, octopus powder and eye of newt. She wasn’t making some sort of salve as usual; she was making a doxy-repellent. It made no sense because there were no doxies in Spinner’s End.

“What are you making, mum?” asked curiously the little wizard, tilting his head subconsciously.

His mother glanced at him and smiled. His mother rarely smiled so the sight of it –no matter how small it was- lifted Severus’ spirits, “I’m making a doxy-repellent”

Severus furrowed his brow in confusion outwardly, “But there are no doxies here”

The disinherited pureblood nodded, “I’m making it for the Apothecary in Diagon Alley. It seems they sell pretty well and needed more”

He nodded, wondering why his mother had decided to do some work in the Apothecary in this life while in the other she hadn’t, “So you do some potions for the Apothecary now?”

Eileen Prince hummed in agreement, as she slowly grinded the octopus powder even finer, “Now, Severus, why am I going to use octopus powder for this potion?”

He bit his lip for a moment as though he needed a moment to think why, then visibly brightened and said, “To strengthen the potion! Octopus powder usually strengthens potions”

His mother beamed at him, “Well, done, Severus!”

They spent an hour in the kitchen making the potion while his mother taught Severus everything she knew about the potion. Well, it was more like his mother making the potion and explaining why she was doing something while Severus watched attentively.

Eileen was quite happy today; Severus supposed that having her own income and a connection to her world probably gave her a feeling of satisfaction and contentment. Still, in his older life, Eileen had been too proud to actually trade with the Apothecary, as heiresses didn’t usually sell their potions. They did create new potions and live off the galleons the patents brought, but they didn’t actually make the potions and sell them unless the potion was ridiculously complicated. He wondered what had brought the change.

After they were finished, Severus helped clean the cauldron and the table and he helped make dinner. Eileen used that opportunity to show him how to grip knives to make different cuts for the ingredients, even when he was just chopping vegetables for the soup. Even though older Severus knew exactly what to do, it was surprisingly fun. His younger self was basking in his mother’s attention and the atmosphere in the kitchen was light and comfortable.

Although his family situation in this time was better, Severus was still unused to this level of care and affection from his mother. In fact, his older self remembered his own lessons with his mother to be more sombre and full of worry of his father bursting into the room and beating them both for talking about magic. His mother had also been more intense; she was focused on making him a great potioneer.

In this life, his mother seemed more affectionate of him and didn’t focus as much to make sure he was a skilled wizard. She spent time showing him how to cook, without trying to associate everything with potions. Simply explaining how to make the soup more tasty and healthy.

His younger self was so happy that when the outside door opened, he ran to the entrance to greet his dad. There was no worry or fear in his mind as he launched into his father’s arms, exclaiming a happy “daddy!”

Tobias Snape barely caught his child, astonished at the display of affection. He was used to his child shying away from him. And it had been a very long time since the last time he had been called ‘daddy’. He looked at his son’s happy face, there was a wide genuine smile on his lips and his black eyes sparkled with delight at seeing him. He felt a wave of warmth feeling him.

“Daddy! You have to taste the soup mum and I made! She let me help her with the veggies!” he rushed excited.

Eileen stepped out of the kitchen to see the scene with caution, a part of her wanted to pull her child away afraid of Tobias’ reaction. He surprised her by smiling tenderly at their child and saying, “Now, I just have to try this great soup, don’t I?”

The squib bounced his son in his arms causing him to let out a giggle, “You’ll love it! Mum and I made it with a lot of love, it’s the special ingredient!”

Tobias raised his eyes to meet his wife’s. Eileen swallowed; her heart was beating wildly against her chest. But her husband's eyes weren't filled with anger or rage. In fact, he looked calmer than she had ever seen him.

The older Severus watched the exchanged, still in shock. His younger self had been so spontaneous he hadn't been able to restrain him. But it seemed like the obvious affection had softened his father. The older Severus was torn. He didn’t believe his father could change, an abuser would always be an abuser in his mind.

However, the changes in his parents seemed to great to only be provoked by his mere presence. Before today, Severus hadn’t done anything greatly out of the ordinary. He had limited himself to not openly confronting his father and cleaning the house. Surely such small changes couldn’t change his parents so much?

He was pondering on the possibility that all this was a parallel universe instead of the past. It just didn’t seem possible for his parents to change based on so little. Maybe it was a parallel universe and his parents were slightly better people in it. That would explain why Tobias wasn’t such an aggressive abuser anymore and why Eileen had decided to overcome her prejudices to actually get some additional income.

%MCEPASTEBIN%


	6. Chapter 6

Severus studied his reflection quietly in the small little bathroom; thankfully it was no longer dingy or dirty. His looks had vastly improved, and they would be even better by the time he went to Hogwarts. His teeth weren't completely a pureblood white yet, but they were off-white. His hair was still a bit greasy, but it was glossy and soft and his skin wasn't unhealthy anymore. The fact that his nose hadn’t been broken in this lifetime helped as well.

He had to admit he was surprised by how cute he looked with those minor changes and a part of him wanted to know whether he would actually be beautiful once the changes were complete. It had become some sort of ritual to examine his appearance after he bathed and he finished brushing his teeth. Sometimes his mother would come and oddly enough Eileen had developed the custom of brushing his now sleek hair.

It made him feel weird to be honest. In his other life, his mother had never taken care of his physical appearance. In fact, the notion that he was ugly was deeply cemented on his mother's attitude. She had taken for granted that he was unpleasant to the eye and had made it a point to train him mentally and magically to make up for it. He felt a stab of hurt at the thought his own mother had thought him hideous.

His training was less strict now. His mother would allow him to help her with more potions, now that she made potions for the Apothecary and she wasn’t as severe. There was less pressure for him to produce perfect potions. In fact, his mother no longer only taught him potions and other magicks. In this life, she was also teaching him etiquette, which he had sorely missed in his last life. He would have fit in much better in Slytherin, had he known half the things his mother had taught him.

As if she had heard his thoughts, Eileen entered the bathroom, a small secretive smile on her face. She seemed excited about something, which made Severus ponder when he saw her carrying a small vial of a murky green potion. There were many potions of that colour, although only a few were poisonous and those were a few shades lighter or darker. Even though he didn’t expect his own mother to poison him, it was instinctive for Severus to think of dangerous potions first.

“Severus, I want you to drink this potion,” his mother ordered as she looked at his face through the mirror.

The half-blood let his curiosity display on his face, tilting his head to the side, “What is it for?”

“It's a hair lengthening potion,” at his frown she continued, “You have such lovely hair, Severus, it's a pity is so short!”

The dark-haired wizard nodded obediently and took the potion, whose colour and texture was that of a hair potion, from his mother's hands and proceeded to drink the foul concoction. He was surprised by his mother's actions, it was the first time she had actively tried to better his looks. He wondered just how long she wanted his hair to be; after all, it already almost reached his shoulders. Surely, she couldn't wish for it to be much longer?

He was befuddled as his mother let his hair grow until it nearly cascaded to his hips. His mother was a pureblood and to purebloods hair that long tended to be associated with submissives. He tried to keep his confusion from his face. Did his mother believe he was to be a submissive or was she trying to push him into that path? The last time around she had encouraged him to become a dominant.

He stared at his reflection, his hair fell like black silk down to his waist making his pale skin adopt a porcelain look and his equally black eyes to pop out more. Severus bit his pink lip. He definitely looked more submissive than dominant with his softer features and his big innocent eyes.

He looked at the pureblood Prince to see her reaction: a pleased smile stretched her lips as she took in his appearance. She started to brush his now really long hair, caressing it with her long fingers at the same time. Eileen was obviously enjoying these maternal moments.

“It looks so much more beautiful this way, Severus”, affirmed his mother gently stroking his long dark locks.

The half-blood wondered at the cause of her change of character. Could be attributed to Eileen being a switch, meaning that she was neither dominant nor submissive, but she had the tendencies of both?  She was always so submissive like around her husband that she probably enjoyed being able to act a bit more dominant around him.

“But the muggle children won’t like it, boys don’t keep their hair long”, he protested faintly.

Muggle school would end in just two months but that didn’t mean he wanted to be teased for the next eight weeks. This last year had been very tame compared to the others. No one had made fun of him or bullied him. Some of them had even spoken to him kindly. His relationship with Lily was more distant than in his past life, they were mere acquaintances, since he hadn’t discovered her doing magic. But that was alright. He didn’t want to moon over her in this life!

His mother hummed thoughtfully, “Well, I’ll just have to cast a glamour on you before you leave for school then”

The child raised his black eyes surprised, “You’ll cast a glamour on me everyday?”

His mind travelled to the first time of his time travelling, when his mother hadn’t gotten up even past noon. Almost during the entire summer she had been unwilling to leave the bed before noon. But his mother was much better now, she no longer let the entire day pass doing little next to nothing. Now she helped clean the house with some spells and cooked and taught Severus.

“Yes”, answered his mother simply, enjoying the silkiness of his long hair.

She started her lecture of the night, “Now, Severus, when you have long hair it’s essential for it to be well-kept. Every morning, I'll help you style it. In the Wizarding World, the length of the hair is very important. It can indicate whether you’re a dominant or a submissive. Dominants tend to wear it short, no longer than shoulder length. Some female dominants keep it longer, but then it’s usually braided to seem shorter. Submissives, however, keep it long. Some traditional submissives never cut it and wear it ankle long”

Severus gasped and asked incredulously, “To the ankle?”

Eileen chuckled, “To the ankle. The length of the hair can also indicate if you’re a Lord or an Heir of a House. Lords and Heirs keep their hair long enough to keep in a small ponytail. The colour and the material of the tie in their hair show their House and their status”

“What if they wear it in a ponytail but aren’t heirs?” he asked, thinking of his own hair in the future.

“It depends on the tie. A lot of young dominants keep their hair that length, so the tie is crucial to identify their status”

Later, as he lay on his bed, he realised he somehow felt a warmth in his chest at the feeling of being cared of by his mother. His mother had taught him something new and had brushed his hair and promised to glamour him everyday and brush his hair every day. Severus suspected this warmth originated mostly from his younger self, but he couldn't deny he felt it too. His relationship with his younger self was odd.

Both of their personalities had merged by now and since the original was his younger self, the eleven-year-old Severus had more power, but he still had all his older self’s memories. The memories weren't all accessible to the ten year old. A lot of memories had been deleted from their mind, but some, like knowledge of advanced dark magic, were kept in locked corners of his mind. Upon his coming of age, he would be able to access them.

Furthermore, he was still quite childish and more emotional, even after using Occlumency to guard his mind. He had the memories, but not most of the maturity he had gained from experiencing them. He supposed it was rather like watching a movie of someone else’s experiences. You could learn from another person’s example but you wouldn’t grow like if you had experienced yourself. He looked at his ceiling. He knew what had happened in his older memories, how his father had killed his mother in a beating. But it was hard to imagine his father, the one who occasionally would tuck him into bed or kiss his brow, beating his mother to death.

He had managed to change that. He wasn’t sure how. Was it because he reduced the tension between his parents cleaning their home? Was it because he was affectionate and deferred to his father? He didn’t know. He could only hope that when he left his father wouldn’t escalate his violence.

His father who was a squib. How must it have felt to realise you had been abandoned by your family for not having magic? What did it feel to live surrounded by people who had such a precious gift while you didn’t? He hoped his father would tell his mother this time and that it would bring them closer in a good way.

He wondered who his family was by his father’s side. He had never discovered his father’s true ancestry. His magic was very dark so he supposed his father’s family magic must also be dark. But they mustn’t be a main line; if they had his father would’ve had an “accident” in his childhood when it was clear no letter would come. He supposed it was some middle class average family.

He bit his lower lip and turned in his small rickety bed, looking towards the window. The view at night wasn’t very good, since the pollution blurred a lot of stars, but it helped him think. He hoped in this life he would meet his mother’s parents at least. Maybe they would be pleased with him? He knew more of pureblood manners in this life and he had a careful hygiene this time. Surely they would want to meet their grandson?

In his last life, he had learnt that his grandparents had been interested in meeting him. But after hearing Lucius Malfoy’s report of the sullen and bad tempered child he had been, their interest had faded. This time he hoped he would make a better impression and get to meet them. His younger self was quite taken with the prospect of meeting the wealthy and elegant Princes. Even the surname was elegant!

He knew his grandparents only had one daughter, his mother Eileen. Their nephew, Acchilleus Prince, was their heir. He frowned as he tried to remember what he knew of his cousin. He was older than him, by at least ten years. From what he knew at school, he had been a Slytherin and a Prefect.

He had been a good Lord Prince in his last life, although he didn’t know much of those matters. He had attended the Wizenmagot sessions and voted for the dark causes as well as sponsored many young dark purebloods. He had married a young submissive pureblood from a good family, even if not as notorious as his own. They had had three children, two girls and a boy, he knew because their birth was announced in the Prophet. He had never met them, they had been under eleven when he had travelled through time.

He had seen him once. When his uncle once removed was already a Lord and was going to a Wizenmagot session, while he had been going to talk about a patent for one of his potions. Acchilleus Prince had been tall, dark and imposing like any Prince. Their resemblance had been clear, although their family line had favoured Acchilleus more than him. The dominant had been handsome and his aura of dominance had been strong.

The Lord had nodded to him politely. Now that he thought of it, his black hair had been tied in a ponytail as well. The Lord hadn’t said anything, but then, he wasn’t a real member of his House. It was enough that he had nodded at him in acknowledgement. He wondered if in this life his grandfather would acknowledge him too. He hoped so.

  


%MCEPASTEBIN%


	7. Chapter 7

The young wizard entered his house with a wide smile, feeling the glamour on him fade away. With summer starting and muggle school finished, he could spend his afternoons in the green fields again. He stayed more at home than last summer, helping his mother make potions and cleaning the house, yet it was freeing to be able to run among the vast fields with only the sun as his witness.

Besides, he didn't like the glamour he wore to school: it looked like a more unkempt version of him, even if not as bad as before. Although he did love when his mother brushed his hair and pulled it into complicated pureblood hairstyles. His hair was fine enough that there were few knots, so the experience was rather enjoyable.

“I’m home, mum”, he exclaimed as he came inside.

“Come into the attic, then”, answered his mother raising her voice.

He rushed upstairs delighted. The attic was where his mother kept her things. He couldn’t wait to see what treasures were there to discover. He had never been allowed there before, since his mother feared that his uncontrolled magic would damage the only remains of her past. He had always imagined it as a room full of magical treasures.

His excitement didn’t last long. The pale dark-haired child sighed tiredly. He and his mother were rummaging her old trunks in their dusty attic to find what could be savaged for his use at Hogwarts. So far, (and much to his embarrassment), her first year robes fit him. They were a bit too long, but the material was good quality and they didn't look second-hand.

On one hand, the discovery was positive since they wouldn't need to spend more money on robes and he wouldn't be teased for his robes' poor state this time around. On the other hand, the robes were made for a girl, so they tightened slightly around his waist, which would reinforce the “submissive” impression his mother wanted.

He swirled in front of the mirror again to study how they fit his slender form. Dressed with those robes, he definitely looked like a submissive, especially with his face framed by a waterfall braid, his porcelain skin and huge innocent eyes. He nibbled his lower lip, he wasn't sure about this.

He didn't dislike the idea of being taken care of and cherished, but he wasn't sure he'd end up as a submissive no matter how much his mother nudged him towards that direction. He doubted his peers would be too nice if he presented as a dominant while he portrayed the image of a submissive through their school life. Although, he had to admit that as a dominant he hadn't been all that impressive, falling into the control of first the Dark Lord and then Dumbledore.

The last time around he had been a dominant because he didn't trust anyone to have power over him and he believed he didn't have any good prospects as a submissive considering his lack of physical beauty (which wouldn't have been too important had he been a pureblood, but being an ill-mannered Dark half-blood was crucial). Later in life, he had craved a family and teaching in a school full of children with whom he had to be cruel to maintain his role according to Dumbledore's rules had been pure torture.

Now, he was physically pleasing. He knew etiquette. He was more pleasant. He was clever and knowledgeable. He bit his lower lip. He was still a dark half-blood, son of a disinherited Prince. A light dominant wouldn’t like him being dark and a dark dominant wouldn’t like his muggle blood. Well, it wasn’t like he would bond into a Noble House, so he hoped his qualities outweighed his defects for a dominant of a dark minor pureblood house.

He certainly hoped he wouldn't be a switch. Being a switch wasn't that well-regarded in the Wizarding World. They considered it hard to define, so it was hard to find a job. It wasn't that they hated switches, they just didn't quite approve. They thought it was a more muggle inclination to want to just "switch". It was probably one of the reasons her mother had eloped with a muggle.

His mother's equally dark eyes followed his figure, “The robes are too long, I'll cut the edges.”

Severus shook his head, he knew he'd experience a growth spurt by February and if he cut his robes he would be left wearing too short robes for four months. In his first year, he had been mocked enough about it and had no wish to repeat his mistake.

“I'll just sew the edge so that when I grow I just have to cut the sewing. But we'll have to buy sewing supplies,” he answered calmly.

Eileen arched an eyebrow, her voice incredulous, “When did you learn how to sew?”

“At school, they teach the girls using a pillow and Lily couldn't do hers, so I helped her”, replied simply Severus.

It was actually true, at least in his old life.

He had learnt the bare basics doing Lily's project for her. He frowned slightly. He hadn't even received a mere thank you despite how her teacher had praised her in front of all the other girls for it. In fact, later on she had bragged about her “sewing skills” at their muggle school. Looking back, he really didn't understand why he had had such a huge crush on her.

Lily wasn't inherently a bad person. Severus could never think that of anyone who sacrificed themselves for their child. But that didn't mean that Lily had been perfect. The loss of her had made him idealize her in his head, but now that he was in the past with fresh memories from his counterpart he knew the image he had of her was wrong.

The witch had been petty and selfish as a child, the way children usually were. During the war, she had mostly grown out of it as she had been forced to mature. But that didn't change that, at the moment, she wasn't a good friend to have for him. She would abandon him for popularity as she had already done in the past and he didn't need that. He wanted a true friendship for himself this time around, Lily’s friendship wasn’t worth being Potter’s target.

He glanced at his mother, it seemed that knowing his prowess with a needle and seeing his lithe form in these robes had just fortified the pureblood's idea to make him a submissive. He resisted the urge to frown again. He had no particular desire to be pushed into anything. He could see the benefits of becoming a submissive since he had experimented first hand the prejudices the Magic World had against a Dark Slytherin half-blood raised in the muggle world, but he wanted to choose freely.

“We'll buy them in Diagon Alley,” his mother responded dismissively, “Take off the robes and fold them carefully so we can continue looking.”

Severus quickly obeyed, leaving his school robes neatly on his bed and rushing to the attic again. Eileen had already chosen a sturdy trunk for him, which followed the same trend as all of his mother's possessions from her life as a pampered Heiress. It looked upper class, albeit a bit old. He looked through it and it was fairly rudimentary with its four compartments: one for books, one for potions and ingredients, another for knick-knacks and the fourth for clothes.

Afterwards he sunk to his knees next to his mother, trying to not ponder too much on the way her eyes glinted again as she contemplated his graceful movements. He knew he was more graceful now than in his past life, since he hadn't really learnt to move elegantly until he had been surrounded by purebloods. It had been very hard to learn. Still, he wasn't in the mood to wonder the qualities appropriate for a submissive she saw in him.

The pureblood woman really wished for him to become a submissive and didn't hesitate to subtly encourage the traits she considered “submissive”. Lately, she had even taken to give him instructions on how to run a pureblood household and disguised it as her relating the quotidian scenes of her childhood, usually when she brushed his hair. He snorted inwardly once he realised his mother was now starting to explain pureblood customs again.

“And everyday, dad waited five minutes before eight in the Floo room waiting for Father's arrival after changing his casual day robe into a night robe. His night robes weren't that formal just more dressed up than his normal day robes. Although, I know that in some of my friend's houses they would wear more formal clothes for dinner, I always thought it was so sweet when I saw dad standing in the Floo room ready to greet Father with a kiss and ask about his day...”

They spent their entire afternoon trying to find what he could inherit of Eileen. By the end of the day Severus had tried all his mother's clothes from when she was eleven and would be inheriting all the uniforms, fourteen more winter tunics, twenty summer robes and some pyjamas. The inherited clothes didn't look second-hand; instead, they merely looked not new as if he had worn them before, which was normal, and a bit old-fashioned.

Thankfully, the dark-haired wizard knew how to slightly alter them to make them more up to date with the current fashion (although nothing too complicated) and how to remove the Prince symbols that were stitched into almost all the clothing. Even the handkerchiefs had that blasted symbol! Of course, just in case he had been practicing before in less expensive clothing.

His mother, seeing his disgruntle, had said that in a good pureblood house every piece of clothing had to have a symbol of the House. He, however, thought he was lucky he knew what to do with a sewing kit; otherwise he wouldn’t be able to use all those tunics. Wearing the symbol of a House a wizard was not part of was a terrible mistake. It would prompt the House to challenge the wizard for the undue use of their House and that never ended well.

He looked at the collection of clothing, he was putting into the bed orderly to start modifying. Only the uniform that should be new would clue in his schoolmates about how his clothes were second-hand. Still, he guessed it was lucky his mother's house-elves kept all their mistress's stuff unless specifically told to get rid of it and that his mother, in a fit, had brought all her stuff with her when she eloped.

In the other future, he hadn't been offered her old things and the had had to go to a second-hand store in Diagon Alley and buy terrible uniforms and robes since he had had to buy so much new stuff. All the other things: like brushes and others, had also been old and crooked. Now, he had a Victorian vanity hand mirror, brush and comb ensemble with beautiful pink mums painted on the porcelain. He wondered why his mother had never sold it, since they were poor. He supposed she had wanted to hang on her past.

He would also use four books out of the eight subjects: Transfiguration, Charms, DADA, Potions, Herbology, History, Astronomy and Flying. Hopefully, this time he would do better in most of the basic Light subjects. He wasn’t holding his breath though. His magic was inherently dark so he would never be a master in Light subjects. However, he would become competent faster than last time, since he already knew the ways to “trick” his magic into performing light spells.

He pouted. He didn’t want to need to trick his magic. This time around he was more in tune with it than he had ever been before. Casting neutral cleaning spells and dark charms a year early had done wonders. He could feel his magic core more acutely and he knew it was bigger than last time. He wondered how the dark purebloods managed to trick their magic constantly at school.

He sighed. At least, his curriculum wasn’t as light as when he had been a teacher in Hogwarts. He grimaced at the curriculum from last year. Steadily, Dumbledore had made the curriculum lighter and lighter. If he remembered correctly, in the past, a lot of what he had to study would be neutral, leaning towards light but not completely light.

He looked at the trunk. At least, he would begin the year better this time around. He had a clean appearance, beautiful robes and utilities and a lot of his mother’s books. He wondered what they would buy in Diagon Alley, his mother had more money this time around due to her selling potions to the Apothecary.

He smiled. Tomorrow would be an interesting day in Diagon Alley.

%MCEPASTEBIN%


	8. Chapter 8

It was the first time that Severus would go to Diagon Alley, older Severus had decided to let his younger self have complete control and had saved the memories of Diagon Alley, so his younger self would experience it for the first time truly. His younger self had begged and tried to cajole him to release some of the memories from his hold, but the Potions Master had been firm.

The Occlumens could feel his presence weakening as part of him and part of his younger self started to fuse. Thankfully, he had managed to delete the worst of his memories, mostly those as a Death Eater and his childhood abuse. His other memories were already classified. Some of them would remain when he fused with younger Severus, such as manners and pureblood culture and magic theory. His memories on Hogwarts, the people he met there, Hogsmeade and Hogwarts classes would be released as soon as they fused. Others would be locked away until he was older, such as powerful Dark magic and rituals as well as some unsavoury characters.

He had had to delete many memories, not only for their unsavoury content but also because so many memories would overwhelm his younger, unprepared mind. He had kept the general idea, such as Dumbledore was a biased man that favoured the Gryffindors, but he didn’t keep every instance the wizard had favoured a Gryffindor. Although he did keep the memory of Dumbledore threatening him with expulsion if he so much breathed a word of the werewolf that had attacked him.

"I'm so excited about Diagon Alley!" exclaimed the dark-haired child excitedly.

Eileen smiled as she brushed his long hair carefully, "I know, darling"

The half-blood blushed at the endearment, "It just seems so magical!"

His mother hummed in agreement as she started braiding his hair in a beautiful fishtail, starting it very high, "Yes, but you must make sure to stay close to me, there'll be a lot of families today, since Hogwarts day is approaching"

"Yes, mother", agreed the beautiful child obediently.

The exiled pureblood smiled at his easy acquiescence, finishing the braid. She looked at the image of her child reflected in the mirror: in the elaborate braid and a traditional robe, he looked like a beautiful young submissive. She would have to start teaching him the hairstyles so that he would style his hair in an appropriate fashion at Hogwarts.

"Now, go on downstairs, we're leaving soon", she stated smiling.

Smiling broadly, Severus rushed downstairs. He was truly excited about Diagon Alley, he had memories of the place but it wasn't anything he felt like he had lived. It was more like watching pictures or a movie. But it seemed like an extraordinary place! He had never been to a magical place before, so he was so curious. He couldn't wait to be surrounded by fellow wizards and witches.

He looked up eagerly as he heard his mother descend the stairs. She was dressed in Wizarding fashion and she looked so much prettier than in muggle clothes. He thought she had also used a glamour charm, since she looked younger and brighter as well, and she had styled her black hair in a tight braided bun. His mother smiled as she went to the door with him and offered him a black cloak in her hands.

"Mother?" asked Severus in confusion, watching the enormous cloak his mother was holding for him.

"I don't want you to go galloping into Diagon Alley without a cloak, Severus, make sure to keep your hood up", stated simply his mother.

The time-traveller bit his lower lip but nodded. His mother was also pulling another enormous cloak for herself, so maybe it wasn't so strange? He thought in his other life, his mother had also worn a big cloak but she had not given one to Severus as well. That was another thing that had changed.

His mother apparated them to the Leaky Cauldron. It was a run-down pub that was filled with wizards and witches. Severus was fascinated. It was the first time he had seen a wizard or a witch that wasn’t his mother. These people were clearly magical, dressed in robes and their demeanour clearly differentiated between dominants and submissives. Severus could tell without a doubt that the young brunette wizard of long hair sitting down on a table in front of another wizard was a submissive. He didn’t even need to analyse his clothes or hair, it was obvious from the way he lowered his green eyes deferentially or brightened when the other wizard spoke to him. Just like he knew the other wizard was a dominant by the confident way he held himself.

He would have wanted to study the people in the pub more. However, his mother’s hand on his shoulder blade insistently pushed him forward. So he walked to the door at the back of the pub. Outside, there was a brick wall. Severus frowned staring at the brick wall and turned to inquire to his mother why she had led him to a dead end. He could see his mother smile from underneath her heavy hood as she took out her wand. To his astonishment, his mother touched a few bricks on the wall and the wall parted leaving a clear passage to Diagon Alley.

“Diagon Alley”, he whispered in awe at the sight.

It was a colourful and truly magical alley. The shops were small and full of wonders, there was even a shop that sold racing broomsticks! But what interested Severus the most was the people. He could hardly believe belief his eyes at seeing so many magicals in one place! Most of them were dressed in Wizarding fashion, with the robes and their hair of different lengths and styles. He even saw a young submissive with hair so long that his two braids reached the pockets of his robe!

He was too busy staring at the people to pay much attention to where his mother was leading him. It was all so strange and exciting. Severus could easily distinguish the dominants when he was close for they _felt_ like dominants, as though they gave off an aura that screamed dominance. He could also see it from afar. There was a pair of clearly best friends dominants who had been laughing and talking, but carefully not stood to close or touched each other.

He looked forward. There was a small group of Hogwarts students walking together. A brunette submissive held his hand at the elbow of a black-haired dominant and made sure not to touch anywhere else, even though their conversation seemed slightly flirtatious if the submissive’s light blush was any indication. Whereas a male dominant easily put his hand on another female submissive’s small back and tugged a lock behind his ear and the submissive brightened at the touch. Severus frowned, not liking the fact that he didn’t understand why it wasn’t acceptable in one situation but acceptable in the other. It took a few seconds to realise that the dominant touching the submissive so freely was her older brother.

He almost jumped when he heard a loud happy squeal. He turned to see a redheaded female submissive kissing the cheek of a blond submissive boy, who was blushing but smiling happily. No one around them batted an eye at the exchange. Although Severus supposed it had only been a friendly gesture. He looked around. There were several groups of submissives around the alley, of both bonded and unbonded submissives that stood close to each other and giggled happily. He hadn’t seen a single submissive alone; they were either with a dominant or in a small pack of submissives.

His mother finally paused in front of a shop. Severus raised his black eyes and felt his breath leave him as he read the signboard: Ollivanders. A rush of excitement coursed through his body. He would finally get his wand! He was a wizard! A beam stretched his lips without his notice, his expression brightened.

As they stepped into the shop, an old wizard of silvery hair and odd light eyes came into view, “Ah, Eileen Prince! I remember you very well, rosewood and dragon heartstring, if I remember correctly?”

“Yes, Mr Ollivander”, answered his mother, not taking well being referred to as Eileen Prince, “And this is my son, Severus Snape”

Severus stepped forward, as though to present himself even though he was still wearing the cloak and hood, “It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr Ollivander”

The elderly man smiled brightly as he waved his wand around, “What is your wand hand, Mr Snape?”

“Right”, stuttered Severus as he tried to avoid the tape that had come to measure him rather aggressively.

The first wand that was in his hand gave him a rush of power. However, it also tried to put a chair on fire without his leave. He barely had time to process what had happened, before there was another wand at his hand. The new one only gave him a feeling of repulsion, like touching a snail would. The next one was a light-coloured wood and Severus didn’t feel anything from it at all. After that, there was a dark wand that made a gush of wind swirl around the shop. It was the fifth one that accepted him as a master. It was a rush of power and belonging and right. Severus felt like he had met the companion he would have through all his life.

The elderly wizard smiled, “Ah, ebony and dragon heartstring of a Hebridean Black, it was a beautiful specimen cared for by the MacFusty clan. A powerful wand that shall make it easy to learn new spells”

Severus studied fascinated his wand. The ebony wood was black and his wand was long. The hilt of the wand was broader and had been carefully carved; there were two sets of intricate carvings at the hilt. There was a strange symbol that he knew not the meaning of, although he supposed it was a rune. He hugged the wand to himself, he had made use of his mother’s wand before, but this one was different. It felt like it would love him unconditionally. It was a silly thought, but that was how it felt. He barely paid attention as his mother paid Mr Ollivander and then ushered him out of the shop.

The rest of the trip to Diagon Alley was short. They went to get some sewing supplies for Severus. His mother bought him a beautiful second-hand sewing box and they filled it carefully. Then they went to buy the rest of the books and some potions ingredients for the empty kit he inherited from his mother’s Hogwarts years. When they arrived home, Severus was exhausted and went to sleep after putting away his things.

He woke up with a start. Blinking wearily, he realised he could see a tall, man’s figure standing in front of the door. The light of the corridor made it impossible for Severus to see the man’s face. It took a few seconds for him to realise that it was his father. He sat up, his right hand rubbing his right eyes.

“Father?” he askes, yawning, confusion tinting his voice.

His Father said nothing; he only closed the door and sat at the wooden chair that was by his small bed in silence. Severus shifted in his bed uncomfortable, what would his Father want at this hour? At least he couldn’t smell the scent of alcohol, so his Father wasn’t drunk. His hands clutched his blanket.

“Come here, Severus”, ordered his Father, opening his arms.

Blinking in confusion, slipped out of bed and sat in his Father’s lap as his Father had asked of him, “Is there something wrong, Father?”

His father hushed him gently and took his black hair out of the braid, to start caressing his long hair soothingly, “You are leaving for Hogwarts soon and you’re becoming a beautiful young submissive”

Severus laid his head against his Father’s chest, his black eyes looking up to his Father in confusion. The man was speaking to him fondly and caringly, but why had he woken Severus up at the middle of the night? His Father didn’t seem drunk or angry as when he was when he hit mother. His Father hadn’t said anything at all when his mother had started to take care of his appearance, making his hair long and pulling it into complicated pureblood styles. He supposed it was clear that his Father was a Squib, he was sure that a muggle father wouldn’t have reacted well to making his son “effeminate”.

“When- when I was younger than you are now, only eight, I was found in the middle of muggle London. I had no memory of my life or my family, I didn’t even know my name!” whispered his Father, his voice raising slightly at the end in agitation.

Severus remained silent. There was pain and anger in his Father’s voice as he spoke. One of his Father’s hands was still soothingly caressing his long black hair, while the other hand was resting by his side, hugging him against his Father’s body.

“The only clue I had to my identity was this key”, slowly his Father took out a golden chain around his neck that held a golden key “I didn’t know what it was at the time”

Severus bit his lower lip, even with only the faint glimmer of light coming from the window and from underneath the door, he could tell it was a Gringott’s key. It had some symbol at the key’s bow, probably the insignia of the House the vault belonged to.

“I can’t really provide for you well, I know that Severus. But I want to give you this key. I know now that it is a Gringott’s key. I don’t know what it is within that vault, but I hope it will make for a generous dowry for you”, said Tobias Snape quietly as he put the chain around his son’s neck.

“Father”, whispered Severus, looking at his Father in disbelief, he hadn’t even considered the thought of a dowry. His family didn’t have enough money for one and he had known it would damage his chances of a match if he became a submissive, yet he hadn’t wanted to consider the problem until he actually became a submissive.

His Father hugged him tightly for a second and then let him go, kissing his brow softly. Tobias picked him up then and put him to bed, pulling the blankets over him carefully without a word.

“Sleep well, Severus”, was all his Father said before closing the door behind him.

%MCEPASTEBIN%


	9. Chapter 9

He studied his appearance into the mirror wanting everything to be perfect before he left for Hogwarts. It would be the first time he would meet any of his peers since for some unknown reason Eileen had forced him to wear an enormous cloak and had ordered him not to take off the hood under any circumstances. It had been one of the most bizarre orders his mother had ever given him

His long black hair looked like silk in the beautiful French braid fringe bangs that let the rest of his hair cascade to his hips. His skin glowed a healthy pure white resembling the finest porcelain and his teeth were sparkling white. Having destroyed the more detrimental attributes to his constitution, he had to admit that he looked… cute.

His big black eyes framed by long dark eyelashes gave him an innocent look, his nose hadn’t been broken and was simply straight and thin and his pink lips stretched into a beautiful smile now that his teeth were white. He blushed at his own thought and watched how his cheeks were tinted a light pink in the mirror. It was hard to believe the cute child that was in the mirror was him.

One thing for sure was that he wouldn’t be ostracised for his appearance. Even with the second hand clothes, he still managed to be unbearably cute. His blush turned darker at the thought and he stopped looking at himself. He didn’t want to start being a narcissist; after all, he only cared about his appearance because other people cared.

“Severus, it’s time to go!” Eileen called.

“Yes, Mother!” He answered as he ran to his bedroom to pick up his mother's old trunk.

He dragged it downstairs with difficulty, a part of him wondering why his mother wouldn’t spell it to weigh less or levitate it. It wasn’t as though Tobias was in the house and she had certainly done it the first time around. His mother was starting to act strange as Hogwarts day approached. Sometimes it seemed as though she was jealous of him, but the thought was ridiculous, even if all her behaviour seemed to indicate that.

His mother had never given the slightest sign of envy in his last childhood so he didn’t understand why she would start now. The only difference had been his looks and the time he spent in the house. Could she be jealous because he had succeeded in avoiding his father in a bad mood? Or maybe it was because father no longer seemed inclined to abuse Severus like he did Eileen? She didn’t know about the key, that was something Severus was sure off.

But that didn’t explain the weirdest actions of his mother, like making him wear that huge cloak during their visit in Diagon Alley, brushing his hair before he went to sleep, sternly prohibiting him from talking to the other kids in the area or telling him to be suspicious of wizards older than him… That kind of behaviour was protective in an odd way.

Maybe it was a mixture of both, jealousy and protective urges? Unless he considered the protective urges more like possessiveness, which would fit in Eileen’s conduct too. But he didn’t understand why his mother would feel more possessive this time around. It wasn’t as though someone was going to take him away, right?

Although, Lucius Malfoy had been asked to look after him in his grandparents stead and to report to them what he was like. In his other life, they had been disappointed in knowing that he had no manners, no pureblood knowledge and was an ugly and spiteful child. He had learnt of it years later; when Lucius had deemed it right to tell him.

The Princes had been allies of the Malfoy Family for centuries; alliances such as theirs in the noble pureblood lines weren’t odd. Malfoys and Princes married every couple of centuries. They had a loyalty towards each other due to that. As the more powerful and wealthier of the two Houses, the Malfoys had doubtlessly the upper hand. He wondered whether this time around his grandparents would deem it right to contact him. Did he want them to contact him?

He already knew most typical pureblood behaviour; having been a Slytherin and a Death Eater he had picked it up along the way to not make a fool of himself. He would probably get some sort of allowance that his father would promptly steal away to feed his vices. He frowned, touching the key that was under his robe, that wasn't fair. His father had given him a vault.

He bit his lower lip nervously. He couldn’t be nasty to Lucius, though. He had been his best friend, after all. Despite being the impeccable pureblood he hadn’t minded his lower status and sharp tongue, and had protected him from older wizards until he had finished school. Afterwards, he kept being friends with him even in high society.

If Lucius had been any less of a Malfoy such choice would have been terrible to his social life and even being a Malfoy it hadn’t been risk free. So he couldn’t bear the thought of rebuffing him. They probably wouldn’t become such close friends again either way, since Lucius was three years older than him.

He shook his black head, his neatly brushed hair tickling his arms. He was going to access the station through the Floo and he needed to be focused, lest he didn’t pronounce his destination well. He was going to go alone into the station. He suspected his mother didn’t want any other wizard or witch to see her as she was now. So he let his mother fuss over him, putting on the enormous cloak she handed him with barely a resigned sigh.

“Severus”, said his mother seriously, looking into his black eyes, “I know you shall do me proud. We are not a part of the Noble House of Prince anymore, but that doesn’t mean I will lower my standards. I know you will work hard in your studies and behave accordingly”

He wished his older self was around to help him, but they had finally fused together. It had been so slowly that he had almost not noticed. He had some of the vague memories, but his mind still hadn’t completely assimilated everything. At least, he did know Occlumency and would be capable of assimilating the memories slowly in the future so as to not overwhelm his undeveloped mind.

He bit his lower lip nervously; his mother had said nothing like this in his first life, “Yes, mother, I shall do my best”

The pureblood witch smiled affectionately, letting the intensity fade from her face. She kissed his cheek softly and sent him through the Floo with his full trunk in row. When Severus stepped out of the fireplace, he wasn’t sure what to expect.

There was the bright Hogwarts train again. His heart beat wildly at seeing it. He was going to Hogwarts! There were families everywhere, fully dressed like wizards and witches. With a start, he realised it was the first time he had been around so many magical people. Not even in Diagon Alley there had been so many people. He hurried to the train to find his compartment.

Severus sat down in his compartment, the same one he had used for almost all the journeys from London to Hogwarts and the other way around. It was still empty, but the first time around Potter and Black had come to sit there. This time he would not antagonize them, he reminded himself sternly. He would not hide his insecurity behind cheeky or snapped replies. He would act like he wanted by answering shyly and not trying to be something he wasn't.

He sighed.

They would take a while to arrive or maybe other people wouldn't be too intimidated to enter like the first time. After all, he hardly looked like a bully anymore. He opened his bag and drew an interesting book on the life of Haakon the Just, a Norwegian Prince of a Dark county who had lived many adventures.

He was so immersed in his book that he didn't even realise someone had entered his compartment until someone called him. Severus blinked, pulling his eyes from the book and raising his face. There in front of him was Sirius Black, James Potter, Anthony Oakland, Emily Landers and Peter Pettigrew, who had been the one to try to gain his attention, as they were apparently bored with the game of cards they were playing.

He frowned, Peter looked particularly gleeful and he suspected the way he had called him hadn't been nice, while Black and Potter merely looked to be in need of entertainment. Oakland and Emily had never been bullies and looked a bit putout with whatever the chubby eleven years old had said. But why would Pettigrew be cruel in front of other purebloods? He looked like a submissive.

“Hey, Dark wizard, are you so scared of us you can't even show your face?” the rat taunted him.

With a start, Severus realised he was still wearing the enormous cape his mother forced him to wear in public places. He was lucky the times weren't so tense yet, or he didn't doubt he would have been hexed for wearing such a cloth since it signalled him as a suspicious Dark wizard.

“OH, I didn't remember to take off the cloak. Mother always makes me wear it in public,” the half-blood wizard explained timidly, standing up to unclasp the broach of his cape.

He saw everyone except Pettigrew blink at his voice, probably realising that he wasn't a big bad Dark wizard, since his voice was soft and his tone cultured, but not arrogant. He started to unclasp the enormous black cape as the rat animagus continued making insulting insinuations, trailing on until the cloak was no longer covering him. Then, he fell silent and stared at him with wide blue eyes.

Severus carefully folded the enormous cloak and sat down elegantly. Everyone was staring at him. He swallowed and tried not to blush, wondering why they kept scrutinising him. Oakland looked surprised, Landers' face was blank, while Potter and Black had an undecipherable expression.

He didn't understand the looks. This time he didn't look dirty or poor. His robe was a light peach colour and it fitted him well, even though the design was more suited for submissives. He had changed it slightly so that it didn't look old-fashioned, but classic, maybe he hadn't done a good job?

He discreetly looked at his stitches, but he couldn't find anything wrong in them except for one, but surely it wasn't that noticeable? Although they were rich purebloods so maybe for them it was noticeable. None of them were looking at his stitches, though. He fidgeted for a bit, wondering in what he had failed to earn those stares.

“You're so pretty!” Emily squealed suddenly in a very excited tone.

The dark-haired wizard didn't remember her to be so exuberant. In his other life, she had been really popular and charismatic, but to be so outspoken and to say such things...

The half-blood's pale cheeks were tinted a light pink and his response was automatic, “Am not!”

“You even blush prettily!” The pureblood witch exclaimed, grinning.

His blush darkened and he answered, “I do not!”

“Yes, you do!” The brunette witch chanted, her green eyes sparkling with glee, “Isn't he pretty, gentlemen?”

Severus' cheeks turned scarlet at the question, especially when the other purebloods eyed him contemplatively. Potter had a smirk on his face as he acted as though he was deliberating just to tease him, although the half-blood thought that for once it wasn't a nasty kind of teasing.

“Oh Merlin, my submissive I have never seen a more beautiful creature than you!” Sirius exclaimed dramatically, falling on one of his knees on the floor and waving his hands theatrically.

“Stop it!” The dark-haired boy protested, hiding his face behind his hands too embarrassed to face the others.

All the purebloods in the compartment burst into laughter.

And the Snape found himself ambivalent; a part of him thought the teasing wasn't malicious and was happy; while the other part of him felt as though they were laughing at him and was ready to cry that the first pureblood wizards his age were making fun of him.

The conflicting emotions coursed through him. From the experience of older Severus, he would say they weren't trying to be mean, but the younger Severus only saw all the whole compartment laughing at him and his younger self definitely dominated his emotions. He bit his trembling lower lip as he felt how his eyes became glassier, thankful that his hands were still hiding his face.

“Please, do me the honour of becoming my consort, oh lovely nymph,” Sirius continued, imitating the accents of their grandfathers as he reached to take his hand.

The half-blood didn't see it and was unprepared to resist it. The Black Heir fell uncharacteristically silent upon seeing his nearly crying face, as did the whole compartment. Severus lowered his pretty face to the floor, not wanting to see their expressions. Only a fool would nearly start crying for a bit of teasing. Anthony moved next to him and wrapped his hands warmly in his, knowing better than to touch more familiarly as he was stranger, even if they were children. The other children politely looked the other way, to give them privacy.

Oakland cooed softly into his ear, “Hey, we didn't mean any harm with it. We were only teasing you because you're really pretty. I'm sure lots of people have said so before, right?”

The dark-haired wizard shook his head, drawing comfort from the chocolate scent of the other boy, “Mother makes me wear a cape when we go to the Wizarding world and around muggles she makes me wear a horrible glamour. The other children always said I was really ugly and they were right, my glamour was really ugly.”

“I see, but you're beautiful, you know? So we just wanted to make you blush a bit. Emily always tries to make me blush too, at my birthday party she actually asked my Mother whether she would let me marry her when I became a submissive,” the other boy said, smiling softly.

“So you're going to be a submissive?” Severus asked curiously, he knew in his past life Anthony had been a submissive, but he hadn't married Emily since she ended up being a submissive too. But he couldn't help but wonder why the Ravenclaw was seemed so sure of what his transformation was going to be.

The blond pureblood nodded, “Yes, I really think I'll be a submissive.”

“But how do you know? Mother thinks I'll be a submissive too but I don't know...” he whispered uncertainly.

The other boy smiled kindly, “You can be whatever you want to be. I know I'll be a submissive because... it suits me and it'd make me very happy to be one.”

Severus offered a timid smile back to the Ravenclaw. He pulled out of his retreating form, pulled a dark lock behind his small ear, raised his cute face a bit and straightened his back. His black eyes darted to the other purebloods in the compartment.

Emily was grinning at him encouragingly, Potter looked at him with a soft expression he couldn't understand, while Black seemed almost... remorseful? But when the dark Heir saw him looking, he offered a kind face. On the other hand, Pettigrew looked bored. Severus supposed he wasn't old enough to enjoy seeing submissives distressed.

In the other future, Pettigrew hadn't hurt any submissive as he was surrounded by the pureblood purists made up the Death Eaters were and he knew that he would be flayed if he hurt a submissive physically. That hadn't stopped him from picking submissive looking muggles and muggleborns and... Hurting them.

He wasn't sure how exactly right now. When both personas had merged, the older mind had erased some of his memories. He had left a vague knowledge of what was in them, but not exactly what it was. For instance, he knew the Dark Lord was fond of torture and had cast Crucio many times in front of him, but he didn't have the memories of anyone actually writhing in agony in front of him.

He could see some memories of Pettigrew being mean to submissives, not hitting them or anything but seeing his mouth opening like he was speaking and seeing the submissives' eyes water. He forced himself to stop thinking about it. Today was a happy day.

“Forgive these bunch of insensitive berks, we haven't even introduced ourselves!” Sirius exclaimed brightly, “I am Sirius Black, the Heir of the Ancestral and Noble House of Black”, he gestured to Potter and added, “this is my second cousin, James Potter, the Heir of the Noble House of Potter. You have already met Anthony Oakland from the House of Braxton and she is Emily Landers from the House of Humphries. And the boy next to me is Peter Pettigrew.”

Severus blinked in surprise. He couldn't believe that Sirius 'I hate pureblood stiff rules' Black was actually introducing everyone in the order demanded by courtesy. That is to say, he had introduced everyone in order by their ranking and said their houses. The Black he had known disregarded pureblood society so much that he could barely believe that eleven-year-old Sirius knew so much! It was one thing for him to remember the Heirs, but to actually remember third branches of a House?

Each pureblood nodded to him along with their names and the dark-haired child smiled at them in response, “My name is Severus Snape, I am the son of Eileen Prince and Tobias Snape.”

“AH, so you're a half-blood, aren't you?” Pettigrew said disrespectfully as he sneered at him.

A cold feeling swept through the time-traveller and he found no words to reply to the impolite question. He couldn't believe that after all his work and effort, he would end up being discriminated for his supposedly impure blood. The irony that he was actually a pureblood was not lost to him.

The first time, he had been isolated for his ugliness and now he found that beneath the surface he could be considered cute. Now, he'd be sneered for his impure blood. Despite his father being a Squib, he ought to be thought of as a pureblood, even if not on the same level as a child with two Wizarding parents. Maybe he was just destined to not fit in.

“Control your mouth, Pettigrew! The Princes are from an important House, whereas you don't even belong to any House! Eileen Prince was also from the first branch,” Black retorted heatedly.

Peter curled into himself, a hateful expression crossing his face before adopting a more remorseful expression. Meanwhile, Sirius Black’s eyes were cold and his face was stony as he glared down at the rat. It was in that moment that Severus realised that his memories of culture and magic would help him, but the future was changing so much he didn’t know of how much help his memories about people would be.

%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to say that although Severus is pretty, even by pureblood standards, he's not suddenly a breathtaking beauty. The others in the compartment were shocked because they were expecting the face of an ugly dark wizard and instead he was a very pretty submissive. They also wanted to tease him and compliment him gently to make up for all the stuff that Pettigrew had said and they had done nothing to stop. As Severus looks like a submissive and at least James Potter and Sirius Black have definite dominant tendencies, they really wanted to make up for not defending him before, like their instincts and chivalry would demand.
> 
> I hope the interaction didn't seem really unrealistic.


	10. Chapter 10

The ride to Hogwarts had gone well after Black’s passionate defence. Pettigrew hadn’t dared to open his mouth again and had remained almost completely silent, trying to ingratiate himself with Potter and Black again as they were the highest-ranking wizards in their compartment. Luckily, Potter and Black had clearly noticed his intentions and had been disgusted at the obvious sycophant behaviour.

Meanwhile, Potter and Black had treated him with velvet gloves and Oakland and Landers had been incredibly nice and kind. In fact, they had been so nice and kind it had almost made him want to go to Hufflepuff to experience these amiable attitudes every day. It was amazing how different their outlook was. Even though Oakland had actually gone to Ravenclaw.

“So what house do you want to go?” inquired Sirius, lounging comfortably on his seat, somehow making the improper position look elegant.

“Gryffindor, of course! My entire family has gone there”, remarked James jovially still holding some of the sweets he had brought with him from home, Severus could swear now they were delicious as James had offered them to the compartment.

“Ravenclaw, it is the best house, after all”, proclaimed Anthony with faux-haughtiness and a hint of a smile.

It elicited a few laughs in the compartment and Landers good-naturedly shoved the Ravenclaw boy, while the two pureblood heirs boisterously encouraged her ignoring all their hard-learnt manners. Severus couldn’t help the bright smile that stretched his pink lips. It took a few minutes for their laugh to end. Finally they calmed enough to progress their conversation.

Emily shrugged nonchalantly, “I think Hufflepuff, most of my family has gone there”

“What about you, Severus?” asked Potter, his curious brown eyes looking straight into his own black eyes.

Severus blushed and looked to his lap again, he didn’t want to lie but at the same time he was wary of the compartment’s reaction. He knew none of them liked Slytherin and considered it a house of evil dark wizards. Although he supposed Black had protected him knowing he was from the dark family Prince. Of course, Sirius also thought his father was a muggle. Hopefully, their perception of him as a submissive would protect him.

“On my mother’s side everyone went to Slytherin, so I guess that’s where I’ll go”, he voiced timidly.

To his surprise, Sirius smiled kindly, “That’s where all my family has gone as well”

The Sirius in his memories had really tried to distance himself from his family and had particularly frowned on Slytherins. He wondered whether it truly was a parallel universe and this Sirius was more flexible or as a future dominant, Black felt obligated to the gallant towards a potential submissive. Perhaps he was afraid that Severus would erupt into tears again. He hoped he wouldn’t be regarded as overly emotional, it had been just hard to control his emotions since his fusion with older-Severus.

Severus returned his smile and encouraged, continued to talk, “It’s apparently the only house that doesn’t make more than three people share a bedroom or a bathroom! Other houses have to share with at least five”

“Noooo!” lamented dramatically Oakland with wide eyes, “I can’t share a bathroom with five people; we’ll have to wake up at five!”

Everyone laughed and James soothingly told Anthony, “I’m sure that there’s more than only stall in those shared bathrooms”

“Just think of the Ravenclaw library, Tony”, said Emily cheerfully, “You know that library will make up for anything”

“Yes! I’ve heard it has the most rare books”, answered Oakland dreamily, “I can’t wait to get my hands on those”

“Well, that confirms it! You’re a Ravenclaw for sure”, teased Sirius.

“And proud of it!” retorted Anthony exaggeratedly puffing his chest like a peacock.

It was so nice to be in a group of people that were teasing each other but with no malice behind their words. Although they were making fun and laughing quite a bit, there were no hurt feelings or real insults. ‘These is what having friends must feel like’, mused Severus as he observed the joyful compartment with the notorious exception of a sulking Pettigrew.

“Well, it seems we are getting closer to Hogsmeade, we should probably change our robes”, announced Potter as he stood up, stretching his back like a lazy feline.

There were mutterings of agreement and all of them slowly stood up from their seats after hours of sitting down. It was quite a refreshing sensation even if Snape felt quite tired from the trip and only wanted to sleep, he supposed that the dark night outside of the windows stimulated his sleepiness.

Gentlemanly, Sirius stated, “We’re leaving the compartment for you to change first, Anthony and Severus”

Severus felt his cheeks heat at the thought of already being treated like a submissive. Although his parents did it, it was different from people his age. He also felt vaguely uncomfortable with special treatment just because he might become a submissive, even though he knew it was normal and expected. Anthony nodded readily enough with a gently thank you, used to this behaviour.

“I’ll just change in the toilets, too many boys around here!” declared Emily with a wink as she opened a small bag that clearly had an extension charm, “behave while I’m gone!”

Severus looked up to his extremely heavy trunk and wondered how he would get it down to get his school robes. He peeked at Anthony, but it was likelier that the trunk would fall on top of them than for them to pull it down safely. He would probably have to ask for help from Sirius and James who were more athletic; he loathed to ask for such a thing. He didn’t want to be seen as the helpless little submissive, especially after crying before.

“Boys, could you help with Severus’ trunk? It looks quite heavy”, asked Oakland, noticing his dilemma.

“Sure”, answered James carelessly motioning to Sirius to help him, neither of them even glanced at Pettigrew to help.

Both dominants pulled his wooden trunk down with difficulty. They were tall and athletic, yet Severus could see their arms straining at the weight of the trunk. He should have really asked his mother to cast a weightless charm on it, regardless of her lack of offering. At least the two boys managed to lower the trunk without it falling on top of them.

“What are you bringing: rocks?” questioned Potter as the trunk was finally set on his seat.

Severus blushed self-consciously and cursed his fair skin for his embarrassment was quite obvious. It gained a bright boyish grin from Potter and Black, who seemed to have accomplished something. Even Anthony was trying to hide a smile at Severus becoming so flustered. At least this time he was sure that it was all in good cheer and no one wanted to make him feel bad.

“Thank you for your help”, replied the black-haired wizard as he composed himself.

“Always a pleasure to help”, expressed Black, his grey eyes strangely sincere as the two pureblood Heirs left the compartment.

The door closed firmly after them, the click of the lock sliding into place. The two potential submissives dressed quickly into their school uniforms, not wanting to make the other boys wait too long. Once they were done they let the boys in and waited in the corridor for a few moments. It was clear quite a few compartments were doing the same, because they weren’t the only students that were waiting in the corridor.

It seemed like time flied and suddenly, Severus was in a boat with James, Sirius and a muggleborn girl called Laura Redfern. The four couldn’t help their gasp of awe as they first saw Hogwarts. The school was a beautiful castle and all the purebloods could feel the warm wards around it that welcomed the new batch of students. It was a unique place in the world. Like with Diagon Alley, his older self had made sure to keep the memories of those places away until a day after he had been there for the first time. This was truly the first sight Severus had had of the stunning castle. Surely no place could be as beautiful or as welcoming as this, thought Severus.

It seemed like in a dream when they finally crossed the lake and were ushered to the Great Hall. There were hundreds of students divided by the four Houses’ tables, watching them expectantly. The other students seemed so old to him, even though the second years were only a year older than him. There were thousands of candles hovering over the tables! Were they enchanted or did the house-elves cast the spell upon them every day? The light from the candles made the experience even more surreal.

The teacher’s table was full with Dumbledore sitting in the middle; Severus felt a touch of dislike at the sight of the meddler. Dumbledore was completely forgotten when he realised that there was no ceiling. Or, more accurately, the ceiling was enchanted to look like the night sky. It was beautiful. Sirius touched his arm and they exchanged an awed smile.

And then the hat that he had not even noticed, an old hat sitting on a wooden stool, started to actually speak. It was unbelievable. It started singing and the verses were actually quite eloquent. Severus wondered what sort of magic would give a hat intelligence and the creativity to create its own verses. It was madness. It was magic. This was where he belonged, in the Wizarding World.

Professor McGonagall, the same elegant and stern witch that had guided them inside, started calling out names. Apparently the sorting was made by the old hat. Severus shook his head in amusement and astonishment, truly, only wizards could have come up with such a crazy and odd idea. And only wizards could have made that crazy and odd idea come true.

Soon enough, Sirius name was called and the pureblood left his side with a smile. The Heir confidently strode to the wooden stool and put on the hat as though it was something he did every day. The half-blood knew that Black was sorted into Gryffindor and Severus wished that at least this time around, Sirius didn’t become a prick.

It was to his astonishment when the Sorting Hat proclaimed, “Slytherin!”

The black-haired wizard blinked. That wasn’t right. The Slytherin table started to cheer, more loudly than for other sortings. But then, Sirius was a Black, the Heir of a powerful dark family. To his further surprise, Sirius didn’t seem upset. The one who in another life had been a Gryffindor stood up from the stool and walked to his new House with confidence, winking at Severus. Snape blushed and then glanced at the High Table, Dumbledore seemed displeased.

Severus told himself that this was a fluke. Surely his presence didn’t change that much? Maybe this really was a parallel universe instead of the past of his older-self’s memories. It was with even more astonishment that he saw James Potter, Gryffindor extraordinaire, sorted into Slytherin. This wasn’t possible. Potter, like his cousin, swaggered to the Slytherin table and sat next to Black both smiling at each other. Well, Severus thought dismayed, those two were inseparable. He supposed it did make sense.

“Snape, Severus”, called McGonagall.

Severus stepped forward clumsily, still dazed by all the changes. He heard a few laughs. Blushing, he composed himself and walked to the Sorting Hat with all the confidence he could manage. His mind was a swirl of confused thoughts. How could both Black and Potter change their House so easily? After all, the Sorting Hat sorted according to personality and the two Heirs personalities couldn’t have changed so easily.

‘Well, well, what an interesting case’, said abruptly the Sorting Hat in his mind, ‘two people who have become one. Quite curious, indeed. Your older self went to Slytherin, he was cunning and quite ruthless’

Severus frowned; his older self hadn’t been ruthless. He had certainly cared about Severus quite a bit, even when he knew he had been quite exasperating. He had also cared about their mother and father.

The Sorting Hat chuckled, ‘I meant no offense. Now, you are clever and bright… timid… not particularly ambitious… but still quite sly… Yes, you shall be… Slytherin!”

Severus let out a breath he had been holding, he had been afraid to be sorted into another house. He had wanted to follow his older self’s footsteps to take advantage of his knowledge. ‘Of course’, he thought as he eyed Black and Potter, ‘not everything was going according to plan’.


	11. Chapter 11

He was a Slytherin, just like he had been last time. Hopefully, this time it would go better in his house. He was sure it would, he knew more about pureblood customs and culture. He looked at the long table full of older students, some of their faces made it clear they were aware that Snape wasn’t a pureblood surname. He felt a shiver of fear at the blue eyes of a particular student. He quickly moved along the table. Severus brightened as he saw Sirius and James make space in the Slytherin table so that he could sit between them.

“Severus, sit here!” exclaimed the Black heir smiling kindly.

“Thank you”, answered blushing happily Severus as he took Sirius’ offered hand to step over the wooden bench.

The wealthy pureblood waved off his thanks, “It is nothing”

Severus gave him a beaming smile. Was this how it felt to have friends? Knowing that they would always save you a seat? He hoped he would make many friends at Hogwarts then. The young Black’s scion returned his smile and turned to watch the rest of the Sorting. It wouldn’t take much longer for it to finish, there were only about fifteen people left to be sorted.

In what seemed no time at all, the Sorting was finished and, suddenly, the empty spaces on the table were filled with dishes laden with food. The aroma from the food was amazing. This was truly a feast. His mother usually didn’t cook anything so elaborate and his father never cooked so he only recognized many of the dishes from his old memories. Although the food didn’t seem entirely healthy to eat on a day-to-day basis, he could splurge today. It was a special day!

“What would you like?” inquired James surveying the table critically.

Surprised, Severus turned to face him. It wasn’t unusual for a dominant to gather the food for a submissive, but it tended to imply a certain level of relationship. Providing for a submissive was a dominant act, therefore only people with a certain degree of closeness would offer such a thing. James and he had only known each other for a day and he was already offering! It would be rude to deny him, though. Heir Potter was probably trying to show him that he wanted to be friends, even if he was a half-blood.

“The roasted duck looks good”, he said timidly, knowing in his other life he had enjoyed it.

James took his dish and carefully started to carve the duck to give Severus a nice proportion. The gesture of watching a would-be dominant provide for him set a flutter in his stomach. He didn’t know what it was exactly. Maybe anticipation? Maybe thankfulness for taking care of him in such a manner? Despite not being a submissive or a dominant yet, the time-traveller did feel pleased at the gesture.

“James, don’t forget the vegetables, Severus needs to eat healthily”, chided Sirius, “Do you like green beans?”

Heir Potter rolled good-naturedly his brown eyes at the chastisement and whispered conspiratorially to Severus, “Mother hen, do you really like green beans?”

The black-haired half-blood giggled, “I do like them”

Hearing his answer, Sirius picked one of the green beans dishes and passed it to his second cousin. James started placing some of the green beans on his dish, making sure to take the mushrooms, the potatoes and the tomato sauce so the food would be tasty. The Potter Heir studied the meal; it apparently gained his approval because he placed it in front of Severus.

“Thank you”, he said sincerely to the light pureblood.

James’ brown eyes twinkled as he started to serve himself, “No problem, I like to do it”

“Good dominants take care of submissives”, stated Sirius, placing his warm left hand on the potential submissive’s back, “now, start eating before it grows cold”

The order wasn’t given in a particularly dominant tone, yet Severus could feel his fair cheek heat up again. He glanced at Sirius and saw that he also hadn’t served himself until the muggle-raised wizard had been served. It felt odd to start eating before James and Sirius, especially because they hadn’t served themselves in order to prepare Severus’ dish. Nevertheless, he obeyed and started eating. His compliance earned him a proud smile from Heir Black. The green beans were amazing and the duck was even better. The taste of the duck was simply otherworldly.

“Are you happy to be a Slytherin?” inquired James looking at him.

“Yes! Mother went to Slytherin, I can’t wait to tell her I was sorted in the same house”, exclaimed happily Severus after swallowing a mouthful of delicious duck, “What about you? Didn’t you wish for Gryffindor?”

“My mother went to Slytherin as well. My parents will feel proud no matter the house I’ve been sorted to, so I’m glad to be here with Sirius and you”, replied Heir Potter with a warm expression.

“And we’re happy to have you with us, James!” responded Sirius with a grin.

The two purebloods shared a complicit look. Severus had the suspicion that neither dominant would have allowed to be sorted in different houses and they seemed stubborn enough to get the Sorting Hat to grant their wishes. They were cousins, though, and in his last life they had been very close so it wasn’t odd for them to wish to be in the same House. He wondered what kind of chaos they would wreck in Slytherin since they were pranksters.

The entire dinner was delightful. The food was delicious and the two black-haired cousins were funny and entertaining. Although Severus wasn’t able to speak much to the other new members of House Slytherin, he supposed he would have plenty of time to be introduced and get to know them. By the time the Hogwarts song began and James and Sirius sang in silly, high-pitched voices, Severus face hurt from smiling so much.

“Slytherins, follow me!” exclaimed a brown-haired witch with a shiny badge that proclaimed her a prefect.

Everyone around the Hall seemed to start to leave. The Hufflepuffs were already stepping outside of the Great Hall, while the Ravenclaws were starting to stand up. Severus gave Sirius a grateful smile as once more, the Black Heir offered him a hand to step out of the bench. The half-blood could have stepped out of the bench without difficulty; all the same it was heart-warming to see the pureblood thinking of him.

The way to their House’s dorm seemed impossible to remember, Severus was glad for his older self’s time-travelling and memories. They had to go down to the levels of the dungeons and it was a labyrinth. He supposed Salazar Slytherin had done it on purpose to make attack on his students harder. The prefect paused in front of a wall that had nothing to distinguish it from the other corridors.

“The password this week is _Miranda Goshawk_ , the author of _The Standard Book of Spells_ series. Remember her name because most of her books are used in Hogwarts’ curriculum”, stated the prefect authoritative.

Upon hearing the password, the wall behind her started to open, not unlike Diagon Alley. Everyone entered the common room. Severus watched fascinated as one wall had the same spell as the Great Hall’s ceiling, he could see the lake from here! It was dark so he couldn’t distinguish a lot, only a few colourful fishes. He wondered whether the creatures of the lake could also see inside Slytherin’s common room. The other years went to their rooms or sat on the coaches around the fireplace. The prefects, however, formed a neat line before the first-year students. And there was Lucius Malfoy, the tall blond pureblood wizard stood proudly with the silver P of prefect on his expensive robes.

“I am Electra Corner and this is Kyle Summerby. We are the seventh year Slytherin prefects. Andrea O’Hare and Cyprian Otterburn are the sixth year prefects. Cornelia Rastrick and Lucius Malfoy are the fifth year prefects. Our task in Hogwarts is to maintain order and look after all of you, even if you are a dominant”, announced severely the seventeen-year-old dominant, “Today you have been sorted to the great House of Slytherin. This shall be your Hogwarts House for the entirety of your life, long after leaving Hogwarts you shall still be a Slytherin. During your stay here, I want you to behave in the same manner you would to honour your Family House. Any prefect is available to offer you aid or to impart discipline”

The brunette dominant stopped speaking then and made a gesture to his fellow seventh-year prefect to continue to lecture. The other prefect had a less commanding countenance, in spite of his dominance. Kyle Summerby, a tall redheaded wizard, watched all the first-years listening attentively with kind grey eyes.

“I understand this has been a long night for all of you, so I shall keep this short. To the right are the girls dorms and to the left the boys. Upon each door, you shall see a sign with the names’ of the inhabitants of each room. You cannot change the people in your dorm. Sorting Hat according to the probability of your presentation classifies the dorms. Thus, I don’t want to see any of you in another’s assigned room, even if you’re best friends”, Kyle gave them a gentle smile, “You should go to your rooms and start unpacking. Tomorrow, the prefects will knock on your door to wake you up. After dinner, we shall teach the alarm spell to all those who don’t know it. Good night”

“Let’s go, Severus”, said Sirius as he rushed him to the left door that led to the boys’ dorms.

In the corridor, every door was marked even those of the upper years. They had to pause in front of each one to read the sign, since there was no order of years in the dorms distribution. Severus remembered that was another of Salazar Slytherin’s paranoid ideas. If someone wished to invade the Slytherins dorm, he would never know where the more vulnerable or the more powerful were. The signs with their names would change after a week to a simple number.

“This one is yours! Severus Snape and Bastien Ellison. Lucky! You only share with one person”, smiled James as he read the sign.

In his last life, Bastien Ellison had been a submissive. Did that mean he too would be a submissive without any doubt? The Sorting Hat had been inside his head, it should know best after all. Nonetheless it was still strange in his mind. He wasn’t sure of what he would be. How could they be so sure? He was only eleven! The blooming relied a lot on the wizard's personality and Severus knew he had changed. Be that as it may, it felt frustrating to already be locked in the classification of submissive when he wasn’t sure himself. It wasn’t that he had anything against being a submissive. In fact, he had enjoyed being treated like a submissive. Even so it felt odd.

“James, we share a room! This one over there is ours. We share with Acius Smethley”, announced Sirius a few doors further stepping back to where Severus and James were, “Now you know where to find us”

Severus gave him a grateful smile, “Thank you”

“Good night, Severus, if you need anything knock on our door, ok?” said his farewell Heir Black.

The petite black-haired wizard nodded, “I will, thank you”

“Good night, Severus”, wished him James honestly.


	12. Chapter 12

His trunk was already at the foot of one of the beds, it was the one against the wall and furthest from the door to the corridor and the door to the bathroom. It was a canopy bed, quite big and with dark green curtains. He approached the bed and tentatively caressed the green covers; they were very soft. He couldn’t wait to sleep on this bed; it looked like it would be like sleeping a cloud.

There were also two big wardrobes against the other wall and two small desks to study in the room. The quality of the furniture was obvious even to Severus’ untrained eyes. He was too tired to put his clothes away in the wardrobe he decided, besides he didn’t want to be presumptuous and just choose a wardrobe without his roommates input. Therefore, Severus took out his pyjamas, his inherited vanity case and his clothes for tomorrow.

It didn’t take long for the door to open again and reveal Bastien Ellison. The future submissive was a green-eyed wizard with perfect brown curls cascading neatly to his waist. Severus was sure that hair that perfect required at least a couple of complicated spells. His roommate was pretty in a classical way, like most purebloods were. His uniform was neat and on point, not a single wrinkle spotted. Severus would probably ask what spells he used in the near future if this impeccable image was what they offered.

“Hello, I’m Bastien Ellison of House Tyndall”, he introduced himself politely.

Severus felt relief at hearing his house: House Tyndall was a pureblood grey house of average wealth and status. They had enough power to be an official House, yet they weren’t noble. He thought that House Tyndall might be an affiliate to the Noble House of Roscoe, which was a grey house as well. He would have felt intimidated if his roommate were from an important noble House or if it was a particularly anti-muggle house. From what he knew, House Tyndall was grey and wasn’t very political. His father’s status as a muggle wouldn’t be as great an offense as it would be for other people.

Severus gave him a kind smile, “I’m Severus Snape, son of Eileen Prince and Tobias Snape”

The green eyes widened minutely, enough to indicate that Bastien had heard of the Prince scandal and knew who Severus was. Of course, the young pureblood was too well-bred to make a mention of the event or question him on it. That didn’t mean that the topic wouldn’t come up in the future, which Severus dreaded. At the very least, it seemed like the muggle parentage of Snape was no issue for the future submissive, as Bastien returned his smile easily.

“That’s such a pretty dressing box!” praised Bastien amiably as he started to unpack his own trunk.

Severus glanced at his Victorian-style walnut vanity case. The dressing box held his precious Victorian vanity hand mirror, brush and comb ensemble with beautiful pink mums painted on the porcelain as well as four crystal bottles of shampoo, soap, moisturizing cream and eau de toilette laid carefully on top of the blue velvet.

“Thank you, my mother gifted it to me before coming to Hogwarts. It is the same she used for Hogwarts”, he answered sincerely.

Bastien wisely didn’t comment on how the case had probably been gifted to Eileen by her parents and now she was gifting it to her son. Instead he approached Severus and cooed and awed over the decoration of the box and how beautifully depicted the mums were on the mirror, brush and comb. Despite his initial hesitation, Severus was soon laughing and comparing the smell of the different soaps he and Bastien had brought.

“This one smells like… gardenia?” guessed the brunette amused.

“It’s sweet autumn clematis. I went to pick the flowers with mother and we made the soap ourselves. Mother likes to do things like that to prepare me for potions”, explained excited Severus.

“You made it yourself? It smells so good!” exclaimed enraptured the green-eyed pureblood, sniffing carefully the soap again.

To Severus’ surprise he found that he enjoyed the meaningless chatter. He had spent the last year quite lonely, he barely spoke to the muggle students in his class and he hadn’t talked much with Lily Evans. His days had consisted basically of going to school and then coming home to his mother making potions during the school year. During the summer he had been more or less on his own, although his mother and father had been far more present than in any other summer. Yet it wasn’t the same as being around people his own age. Suddenly, he was thrilled to explain how his mother and him had managed to make soap and what his mother had taught him of potions. It helped that the reactions from Bastien were so positive and welcoming.

“We definitely have to pair up in potions then! Before someone else steals you away”, jested happily Bastien as he started changing into his pyjamas.

In spite of Severus’ enthusiasm for the story he was talking about, he couldn’t help but feel awkward seeing his roommate disrobe. Uncomfortable, he glanced at the ceiling as he continued speaking. He should probably change clothes as well. He wanted to go into the bathroom, but after the other prospective submissive disrobing in front of him so non-challant it might seem weird to go change to the bathroom.

Timidly, he turned around and started to change his own clothes. His pyjama robe had been his mother’s, so it was an embroidered white nightdress. He wished he could check that Bastien wasn’t looking at him. Although he knew his looks were much better now, deep down he still felt like the ugly boy he had grown up as. He also felt unsure of letting a submissive see him naked, although the Sorting Hat seemed to think he would become a submissive, he had been a dominant in his other time-line. It seemed incredibly scandalous to undress with Bastien in the room, knowing the other boy couldn’t turn at any second and see him.

He changed quickly and when he turned his roommate was sitting on his bed, carefully brushing his beautiful curls. Despite his hesitance, he couldn’t avoid looking at the long, silky hair. It looked so lovely. His own hair was pretty, he knew, black and long and soft. Yet he couldn’t help but wonder at the perfect curls of Bastien. He wished he could touch it, but he knew touching a submissive’s hair implied a certain level of relation. He hoped that by the time they graduated, he would be a close friend, enough to be allowed to touch the other pureblood’s hair. He smiled at the thought of such a great friendship.

“You have such beautiful hair, Bastien, I love your curls”, he commented as he took out his own comb to brush his hair.

His roommate raised his eyes and beamed happily, “Thank you! Your hair is beautiful as well, Severus, it looks like ebony and I love your fringe braid”

The half-blood blushed as he started taking out his braid in preparation to brush his hair, “Thank you”

They remained quiet for a few minutes as they brushed their hair. Although they were unsure of what to say, the silence wasn’t too uncomfortable and both were tired from the trip and the feast. Severus glanced at the other boy, wondering what to say. He was unused to social contact with peers his age. It was going to be weird to share a room, but he hoped that they would become great friends and that Bastien would like him.

It was also weird to brush his own hair. He had become used to his mother brushing it for him, as she loved to do so. He almost said so out loud, yet stopped himself as he was sure it would seem childish to the other boy. He wondered what was his mother doing right now. Usually she would have already brushed Severus’ hair and put him to bed. Did she miss him? What about his father? He felt his chest tighten at the thought.

“Do you sleep with your hair braided?” inquired surprised the pureblood as he watched Severus braid his long hair.

“Ah, yes, this way in the morning it isn’t knotted”, answered the black-haired student wondering whether it was weird to do so.

“I guess that makes sense, I just make a pony tail and in the morning it can be quite a mess”, replied the brunette with a laugh.

Severus nodded and hummed in agreement. It was silent for another moment. It was painfully awkward, Severus felt. Did Bastien think he was weird for not coming up with more conversation? He bit his lower lip. He was tired and he wanted to go to sleep, while at the same time he wanted to become friends with his roommate or at least lay down the foundation for them to be friends. What would happen if Bastien disliked him? The other boy didn’t seem mean or petty, certainly nothing like the Marauders had been to his other ego, but even without pranks it would make for a very uncomfortable seven years of room sharing.

“I- do you want to be first to the bathroom?” he finally managed to say.

“You can go first, I’m still brushing my hair”, indicated Bastien signalling to his curly.

“Ok”, responded Severus nervously, he would try his best to leave the bathroom tidy and clean.

The exchange was quite strained, but finally they both took turns to go to the bathroom and brush their teeth and then they went to sleep. The bed was like a cloud. His eyelids felt incredibly heavy. With a start, Severus realised as he laid on his canopy bed that he hadn’t even wished the other good night. Bastien must think him an impolite heathen.

“Good night”, he called out, feeling foolish, the curtains probably had some sort of noise-muffling spell and he was speaking to the air.

But then he heard a sleepy, “Good night”, from the other bed in the room and he fell asleep with a contented smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you liked it! I figured sharing a bedroom would be an odd experience for poorly socialized Severus :)


	13. Chapter 13

True to their word, the prefects knocked on their door early enough for them to prepare for breakfast. The morning routine was awkward, as neither Severus nor Bastien were used to sharing a bathroom. Thankfully, they still successfully managed to get ready in time. It was odd to walk back into the Great Hall for the first time as a Slytherin and yet vaguely remembering doing the same. Of course, this time it was different. This time Severus was dressed in a tidy uniform of good quality, he looked healthy and Bastien accompanied him. He wasn’t the loner in poor clothing and unhealthy appearance.

“Severus, over here!” called out Sirius with a bright smile on his handsome face.

The young half-blood looked over to find Sirius, James and Acius, their roommate sitting at the long Slytherin table. Somehow, Severus thought that the Slytherin green fit the dark pureblood much better than the red of Gryffindor. Needless to say, he may be slightly biased. He blushed when he realised that several Slytherins had looked over to see whom the Black Heir, of the Noble and Ancient House of Black, was calling over. A couple of third-year students watched over him speculatively and he thought he saw Lucius Malfoy glance over to him as well. Maybe the reports to his grandparents wouldn’t be abysmal this time; he longed to meet his Wizarding family.

“You know Heir Black?” whispered by his side Bastien curiously, sounding nervous.

Severus supposed he could understand his anxiety. On the social hierarchy of purebloods, Bastien’s family wasn’t that high despite being perfectly respectable. He was probably worried of behaving unbecomingly in front of the Heir of one of the most powerful dark families, the Blacks, and the Heir of one of the most innovative Houses, the Potters. Fortunately, the atmosphere at Hogwarts, even in Slytherin, wasn’t that formal. Besides, almost everyone did something foolish during their Hogwarts years, in their House most people would conveniently forget the incident in exchange of other people forgetting their own tomfoolery.

“We met on the train”, he replied furtively as the two of them approached the offered seats, giving him a soothing smile.

“Good morning, Severus!” greeted James amiably, generously pouring strawberry marmalade on his toast, “Allow me to introduce you, this is Acius Smethley of the Noble House Rackharrow”

The serious looking boy sitting with them nodded at him politely. He was a brunette with hazel eyes. He seemed tall and lanky even though he was sitting, but his posture was that of a perfect pureblood. Severus idly wondered how the two mischievous Heirs were getting along with the serious pureblood. The Noble House Rackharrow was dark, yet Acius would probably treat him well seeing as Sirius, Heir of a more powerful dark House, was treating him well. At least that was his hope, though he doubted Smethley would be foolish enough to go against one of the most powerful Heirs in Slytherin just to spite him.

“Good morning”, he replied as serenely as he could, “This is my roommate, Bastien Ellison of House Tyndall”

“A pleasure to meet you all”, squeaked out Bastien, his voice unnaturally high.

It seemed like Bastien was even more nervous than he had thought. The muggle-raised wizard wished to comfort him, he struggled to think what to do. Severus had never been particularly social or had many friends. And then he remembered how Anthony Oakland had comforted him only yesterday: he had hugged him. Although a hug in the middle of breakfast would only humiliate his new friend, that didn’t mean he couldn’t offer his support. Hesitantly, he grasped the other potential submissive’s hand while they sat down on the table in front of the other boys. Before he could start fearing he had overstepped, his roommate tightened his hold on his hand and sent him a grateful smile.

“I hope you like eggs”, said Sirius as he handed him a plate full of scrambled eggs, half a friend tomato, two sausages and half a toast.

Severus hadn’t even noticed the Black Heir filling up a plate. It smelled delicious. Hogwarts’ house elves had truly outdone themselves. He accepted the plate appreciatively. It still felt strange to have a dominant provide for him, especially since he didn’t actually know Sirius Black that well. It made all sorts of foreign emotions twirl in his stomach. Nevertheless, he didn’t want to seem ungrateful, so he accepted the plate appreciatively.

“Thank you, I love scrambled eggs”, he commented warmly.

The dark pureblood seemed to puff up like a peacock: he sat straighter and a smug smirk took over his becoming face. He did look closer to the memories he had of his older half. It made him feel uncomfortable, even though he knew it was ridiculous because he was the cause of Sirius’ pride. At the same time, it was mildly amusing and honouring to see what impact his words could have on a proud, confident dominant-to-be like the Black Heir. The confusing emotions faded when he saw James roll his brown eyes good-naturedly at Sirius’ antics.

“Do you know what is our first class?” asked Severus interested, spying a suspicious small parchment by Heir Potter’s side.

“Yes, we got the schedule from Professor Slughorn”, nodded James as he started unrolling the parchment.

He took the first bite of his scrambled eggs and contained a moan. It was unbelievable. He couldn’t believe scrambled eggs tasted just so good! The elves had used species and there were tiny pieces of mushrooms inside of it as well as asparagus. Eagerly, he went to try the sausage and it was amazing. The sausage was the perfect combination of meat, spices and something else. He could hardly believe that food could taste this good. The feast from yesterday had been incredible. Nonetheless it had been expected: it was a feast while this was a normal breakfast. Severus had the sudden premonition that he would gain weight at Hogwarts.

“That is not all we got, we also received an invitation to the Slug club”, added Heir Black teasingly, “Can you imagine a worst name?”

That earned a delighted smile from Severus; he truly couldn’t imagine what name would make the club even less attractive. It sounded like a bug club. He almost snorted at the image of James and Sirius dressed up as muggle scientist, in white coats and enormous glasses, studying a slug.

“He is our Head of House, best not to court trouble”, remarked Acius, pouring his pumpkin juice, with the tiniest smile on his thin lips.

“Aww, don’t be boring, Acius!” chided him Sirius with a boisterous laugh, “Getting in trouble is the best part of Hogwarts!”

“And what does that augur for our first year in this fine institution”, replied collected Smethley, his brown eyes sparkling.

That snarky reply gained the laughter of the entire group. It seemed like Smethley might fit in well with Potter and Black, contemplated Severus as he watched the interaction. The brunette certainly could keep up with Sirius.

“Anyway”, said exasperated James, “Our first class is Charms! And guess with whom?”

“Hufflepuff?” piped up Bastien, trying to overcome his timidity.

“Nope, guess again!” demanded the Potter Heir with a smile as he kept the parchment against his chest.

“Ravenclaw?” suggested Severus, hoping that they weren’t paired with Gryffindor with all his strength; all his borrowed memories indicated that was the worst idea ever.

“Good try but no! We have class with the Gryffindors”, exclaimed James cackling.

Severus looked at his roommate and felt warmth spread on his chest when he saw Bastien send him the same mournful look. He had only known Bastien for less than a day and they were already exchanging meaningful looks!

“I don’t understand how that is something to crow over. Everybody knows Gryffindors are impossible”, commented the prospective submissive as he sullenly played with his benedict eggs.

With a start, Severus realised that although Sirius had prepared a plate for him, no one had done so for Bastien. He supposed it wasn’t so odd seeing that the three potential dominants had only just met his roommate. However, the realisation made him uncomfortable. Was it queer that Sirius and James assembled his meals? Should he refuse next time? No, that would be terribly impolite. He winced at the thought of how awkward and uncomfortable that would be. No sense in making trouble.

“It will be entertaining precisely because the Gryffindor are impossible. Can you imagine their faces when we master the spells faster than them?” questioned smugly Sirius, having already finished his meal.

“You seem awfully sure that we will be the first to master the spells”, observed Severus cautiously.

The wealthy pureblood shrugged unconcerned, “We probably will, won’t we?”

The young half-blood stared at Sirius in surprise. He knew the Black from his memories was different than the one sitting in front of him, for one, this one was wearing green robes. However, the Black from his memories had fought in the war in favour of muggleborns. This comment that implied that as purebloods and as descendants of powerful lines, they would excel before their peers in Gryffindor was quite… racist? Classist mayhaps?

It wasn’t that the implication wasn’t true, purebloods from powerful lines tended to be more powerful: that was simple genetics. It didn’t hurt that most pureblood exercised their magic before Hogwarts, aiding the growth of their core. He was just startled, in view of the fact the comment didn’t fit with the mentality Severus thought Sirius had.

James hummed in agreement, “Most probably”

Sirius seemed to notice Severus flabbergasted expression and gave him a gentle smile, “You will do great, Severus, I know you will. Don’t be nervous, I believe in you”

Whilst the half-blood Slytherin hadn’t worried about that, considering his advantageous set of memories. The sincere sentiment of support and trust in him stole his breath. He felt warm all of a sudden. Granted, Sirius thought he was a half-blood and hadn’t wished to offend him. It took a few seconds for Severus to remember that he actually wasn’t a half-blood. His father was a squib, after so many years believing one thing; it was hard to keep in mind that he was a pureblood.

Snape’s pale cheeks became a quite becoming shade of pink, “Ah, yes, of course”


	14. Chapter 14

“There is no need for you to carry my bag, Sirius”, protested Severus trying to sound stern as he followed the pureblood heir through Hogwarts’ corridors.

He tried to reach for his bag, but the black-haired dominant kept the bag out of his reach with ease. He glanced at James for aid in managing his ridiculous cousin, yet the Potter heir just offered a guiless smile at him, seeing no problem in the situation at all. Bastien, his submissive roommate, gave him a commiserating smile even though he was allowed to carry his own bag. Meanwhile Acius, the two cousins’ roommate, only seemed amused at his weak attempts to take his bag back.

The Black Heir shrugged elegantly and replied with a smirk over his shoulder, “And there is no need for you to carry it when I am perfectly willing to do so, Severus”

The half-blood Slytherin unknowingly pouted at the response. It was one thing to accept Sirius and James’ preparing his meals for him; it was an entirely different matter for Sirius to carry his bag around. An older brother would certainly prepare the meals for a younger submissive sibling, carrying a bag for a submissive was less… innocent. Of course, they were still only eleven so he supposed the noble Heir didn’t see it that way.

“Just accept it, Severus, we aren’t going to let you carry your bag”, said James placing a warm hand on the small of his back, gently leading him towards their first class at Hogwarts.

They had just arrived at the door of their first class of charms. However, just because Sirius had managed to carry his bag to their first class didn’t mean that the two black-haired cousins would carry his bag around for the rest of the year. The time-traveller narrowed his black eyes at him, looking as threatening as a kitten, and opened his mouth to protest yet again this injustice when he was interrupted.

“Severus!” called out a familiar feminine voice.

When the young Snape turned around, bright red hair and sparkling green eyes in a Gryffindor tie greeted him. Lily Evans, his neighbour in the Muggle World, was cheerfully greeting him now. He remembered that in his memories, his elder self had fallen in love with the muggleborn. It might be because he was more inclined to submission than his elder self, but he honestly couldn’t see the appeal. The girl was pretty, sure, yet she was greeting him as though they were best friends when she had barely spoken to him through the last year in muggle school.

“Lily”, he replied with a polite smile, not too warm but not cold either.

The muggleborn’s fair cheeks became a fetching shade of pink. It suddenly came to Severus’ mind that James Potter had fallen in love and married Lily Evans. The idea made him feel uncomfortable. His elder self’s love life had been quite tragic. Although he wished he could turn around to see the Potter Heir’s expression towards the muggleborn, the gesture would be too obvious. The thought of Lily Evans putting a love-struck expression on the potential dominant’s handsome face made him even wearier.

The red-haired tugged a stray lock of hair behind her small ear, seeming nervous, “I didn’t know you were a wizard too, Severus!”

The potential submissive wasn’t sure how to respond to that. He lived in the Muggle World because his father was a squib, thought to be a muggle by everyone. It wasn’t his place to reveal his father’s vulnerability on the matter, under his clothes he felt the heavy Gringott’s key. His living with muggles, or more adequately, his mother (a pureblood heiress) living there had been quite the scandal. He felt uncomfortable speaking of this, especially around his noble pureblood friends.

“My mother is a witch, formerly from the Noble House of Prince”, he finally stated, wishing to make it clear that he wasn’t a muggleborn as Lily.

Lily Evans had never been a stupid witch and seemed to sense that this wasn’t the direction to take their conversation in. Even though the muggleborn wasn’t familiar with Wizarding culture and Houses, she must have deduced that marrying a muggle wasn’t particularly recommended for a pureblood witch.

“You seem… different”, she suggested hesitantly, blushing yet again.

This time it was Severus who blushed at the memory of his ugly glamour. After being so careful with his appearance to be not be the eyesore he used to be, the glamour had been quite disagreeable, despite not being as bad as he used to look.

He shifted awkwardly, “Mother put a glamour on me before going to school”, then willing himself not to behave so awkwardly added with a small smile, “Muggles wouldn’t be too fond of my long hair I think”

Lily’s impressive green eyes flicked to his silky long black hair and she giggled a little, “No, Mrs Roberts wouldn’t have approved I think”

Severus laughed a long, imagining the disbelieving face of his strict English teacher had she seen his long hair. Mrs Roberts was quite particular in how girls had to behave; the young half-blood had heard quite a few ludicrous instructions from Mrs Roberts that made him glad the Wizarding World didn’t adhere to the foolish system of submissive female and dominant male.

Then Sirius, who had been nearby through the whole interaction, was suddenly by his side, placing a possessive hand at the small of his back. Heir Black’s smile was cold and sharp towards the young muggleborn. Severus wondered if James had been smitten with Lily Evans and the young pureblood disapproved. Last time, Sirius had encouraged James’ affections towards the muggleborn, yet this time he was a Slytherin, not a disappointment to his family by being a Gryffindor. Sirius had received just this morning a letter from his parents expressing their pride at his placement in Slytherin as countless Heir Black’s had done before him.

“Is this your friend, Severus? Introduce us”, ordered Sirius tersely.

Severus looked at the Slytherin tentatively. Heir Black was smiling brightly, but it wasn’t a real smile at all. This smile was unlike all the genuine smiles Sirius had gifted him through these two days. This smile was sharp and his Black eyes gleamed predatorily.

“Sirius, this is Lily Evans, she lives in the same community as me”, he said, purposefully not claiming her as a friend, which she wasn’t, “Lily, this is Sirius Black, Heir to the Ancient and Noble House of Black”

“It is nice to meet you”, said Lily hesitantly, tugging at the Gryffindor tie.

“Pleasure”, nodded sharply Sirius, “I understand you are a muggleborn, then?”

Lily looked at Severus for aid and nodded unsurely, “Ah, yes, I am a muggleborn”

“I hope that you are willing to learn the culture and customs of this wonderful world that is welcoming you, Miss Evans”, asserted Sirius passive aggressively.

“I-…”, Lily’s big green eyes pleaded Severus for help.

To be honest, the time-traveller didn’t want to antagonise one of his only friends in Hogwarts to aid a girl who was only his neighbour. Sirius Black was powerful and vengeful; Severus had enough memories of his elder self to know that Sirius Black was dangerous and not a good enemy to have. He didn’t want to antagonize his new friend, for he was sure if Sirius was angry with him House Slytherin would side with Heir Black. That said, this was surprising behaviour for the idea he had of Sirius from his elder self. It only drove the point home that he truly couldn’t rely on his memories of people for people were too changeable.

“Sirius, I am sure Lily is quite excited to start discovering the wonders of our world”, he said, placing an appeasing hand on the noble’s arm.

The stormy eyes of the Black Heir met his own. Severus couldn’t quite decipher what Sirius truly wanted, yet the black-haired pureblood seemed to thaw, giving him a gentle smile. The time-traveller wasn’t sure if the potential dominant was no longer angry with him or thought his behaviour too harsh towards a young submissive.

“It seems the class is about to start”, announced James watching the class door open.

“Will you sit with me Severus?” inquired quickly Lily.

The question was a surprise to the half-blood. Why would Evans now want to be around him? He understood he was the only wizard that she knew from outside Hogwarts, but even in school they hadn’t interacted much, especially since he had never told her she was a witch. It seemed incoherent. He didn’t to think badly of someone he barely knew, yet he had the suspicion that Lily wanted to be friends with him because she know saw him as popular. He saw James’ attractive face twitch at the question and swallowed thickly.

“Ah, I am going to sit with my housemates, Lily”, he replied, “mayhaps, at another time”

The red-headed witch looked crestfallen at the reply, but she forced a smile, “Of course, some other time”

When they went inside the classroom, Sirius sat on his right and James on his left. As Professor Flitwick started to go through the list of first-years, the Black Heir leant to speak in his ear, making Severus shiver and blush.

“Do you know her much?” he questioned intently.

The warmth on his sensitive ear made the young Snape blush, “Ah- no, we went to the same school, but we must have spoken once or twice a year”

“Then why does she suddenly want to be your best-friend?” questioned, irked, the Black Heir.

“I suppose she must be homesick and wanted something familiar”, he replied trying to pay attention to the general introduction to the class that Professor Flitwick was giving.

“And do you? Do you want something familiar?” inquired Sirius intensely.

Severus could feel Sirius’ magic revolving around him. The Black’s magic was always powerful and dark and menacing and enticing at the same time. It was unusual to feel it this openly though, purebloods were trained since birth to restrain it carefully so as to not give their enemies a taste of their magic. The magic seemed agitated. Some dominants were very possessive of their small group of friends, it seemed that Sirius’ carrying his bag for him wasn’t simply a teasing gesture but a declaration that Severus was in that small group of friends. The notion filled Severus with warmth. The Marauders had been very close friends and now he would be part of it, instead of being set apart as a loner.

“I am a wizard. I am already home”, he answered honestly.

The pureblood noble seemed satisfied with his answer and leant back on his own chair with a smug smirk on his handsome face. From his own chair next to him, James offered him a warm smile.

In Charms, they learnt the levitation spell. As Sirius had predicted, he was the first to master the spell closely followed by Severus and James. The purebloods achieved the spell quite fast, unlike the muggleborns who struggled more. In the future, remembered Severus abruptly, the difference hadn’t been so stark because the light faction led by Dumbledore had harshly punished magic under the age of eleven even if it was wandless. Denying the purebloods their magic, so that they would be as unfamiliar as the muggleborns was utterly unfair and it had only passed because the Ministry was interested in wizards being reliant on their wands for magic as it was more easily tracked. This time, he wouldn’t allow this. Severus thought fiercely. No one deserved to be denied their magic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I hope you enjoy it :)


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